What a Journey

So much happens in so little time in this novel that it is hard to even orient myself. Candide becomes separated form the Old Woman and Ms. Cunegonde after his murder of the Grand Inquisitor and the jew catch up to him in the new world. In fact, Candide does so much traveling around the world that I looked up various maps of his journey so I can keep everything straight.

I am very surprised at Candide (and Volatile's) attitude toward the native people of the Americas. When Cacumbo (Candide's new friend who is part Spanish and part native American) and Candide arrive in the isolated kingdom of El Dorado in what we as readers can assume is in present day Peru, they are greeted with absolute kindness. The roads there are paved with what Europeans would consider to be precious stones and though the natives laugh a little, they allow Candide and Cacumbo to take as many of the stones as they can carry back to Europe with them in efforts to become rich. In addition, the native peoples of the americas are portrayed as very mathematically advanced. Their kingdom is an oasis surrounded by mountains (probably the Peruvian Andes) and the king has his scientists and mathematicians design and build a catapult to fling Candide and Cucumbo over them. The two travelers also encounter a more nomadic tribe of native peoples, who happen to be cannibals, but who think with reason and logic and end up showing kindness to the Europeans. This is an unusual point of view for a European of Voltaire's time period to take and it has me wondering why and how Voltaire was so forward thinking for his time.

With their newfound riches, Candide and Cacumbo hope to travel back and find Ms. Cunegonde, who has been taken by a military official in Buenos Aires to be wed, and buy her freedom. Candide hopes that, once Cunegonde is free, that he will finally be able to marry her (which is creepy because they are half-siblings). Based on what I know of Voltaire and the novel, I'm predicting that this plan will go rather less well than Candide is hoping. For all I know, Cunegonde could be dead already, which actually wouldn't be very surprising. This whole thing has me pondering about the theme of the novel, too. I know the general idea that Voltaire is hinting at about human optimism not lining up very accurately with human reality. I know that after a series of repetitive hardships, Candide will start to seriously doubt what Dr. Pangloss taught him back in Westphalia about living in the "best of all possible worlds". But, what exactly is Voltaire specifically saying about this phenomenon and how it relates to human nature as a whole? I guess I'll have to keep reading.