CKQ +ch+19-22+Eric

In //Candide//, Voltaire is satirizing the idea that this is 'the best of all possible worlds." Therefore, Voltaire wants to you answer the following question:

1. Why is this not the best of all possible worlds? But, at the same time, //Candide// is not an entirely hopeless novel. What rays of hope do you see? As you post your responses to the 'key question' also mention 'rays of hope' that you see in the novel.

Here are some specific categories to look for:
 * religion
 * kings
 * governments
 * war
 * avarice (greed)
 * social pride
 * dishonesty
 * slavery
 * inhuman treatment of others
 * disease
 * cataclysms

'Good God!' said Candide to him in Dutch. 'What are you doing there, my friend, in such a deplorable state?' - 'I am waiting for my master, Monsieur Vanderdendur, the well-known merchant,' answered the negro..............."Oh Pangloss!' cried Candide. 'This is one abomination you could not have anticipated, and I fear it has finally done for me: I am giving up on your Optimism after all.'--'What is Optimism?' asked Cacambo -- 'Alas!' said Candide, 'it is the mania for insisting that all is well when all is by no means well.'
 * Page 51~52**

This is after when Candide and Cacambo see a negro slave waiting for his master. They see that the slave has one arm and one leg cut off, and he tells them that it was his master that did this to him. The slave also talks about the condition they are under, and how they get treated harsher than animals. While reading this part, I remembered that previously, Candide always seemed positive by following Dr. Pangloss's words: the world you currently live in is the best of all possible worlds. However, when Voltare writes this part about Candide expressing sorrow and pity for a slave, I think that the writer wrote in a sarcastic manner, trying to say that this world is not really good after all.

Presently one of the vessels fired a broadside, so low down and accurate as to sink the other outright. Candide and Martin could distinctly make out a hundred or so men on the deck if the sinking vessel, all raising their arms to the heaven and uttering the most fearful shrieks; the next moment everything was swallowed. 'Well, there you have it,' said Martin. 'That is how men behave towards each other.' -- 'Certainly,' said Candide. 'the devil has had a hand in this business, at least.'
 * Page 57**

This scene is where Candide and Martin see two ships shooting at each other, and also one of them sinking. They also see hundreds of people screaming for help, and then sink into the ocean. This is a very good example of emphasizing the point that this world is not the best world to live in, thus proving Dr. Pangloss's teachings not always correct. However, right after this scene, there is a sentence where it says that one sheep swam to the shore, and Candide was delighted. I think this can be seen as the 'ray of hope.'

....I have a brother in Dieppe, in Normandy; I will take you there; and if you have any diamonds for him, he will look after you as if he were looking after me.
 * Page 69**

This is the scene where Candide tries to bribe an officer and succeeds. The officer tell him to do the same thing to his brother, because he will gladly accept diamonds. This scene clearly shows that literally, this world is not a good world, but in Candide's point of view, it is a very good world where the diamonds provide to be the'ray of hope' from getting out of trouble. I think the writer used irony here.