Candide’s adventure definitely reflects the reality of the world. After Candide was expelled from the castle, he had experienced many tragedies and saw the different sides of the world. He saw the cruelty of war and the brutality of human nature. Candide finally realized that his belief was wrong. One of the most crucial scene is in chapter 6 when Candide saw Pangloss was hanged in front of him. Candide said “If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others like?”(pg. 364) At this point, Candide questioned the philosophy of optimism. He started to think about life in his ways instead of following Pangloss’ teaching. After he experienced the death of Jacques and Pangloss, Candide found out that the world is not what he and Pangloss thought of. This scene is a very important turning point which changes Candide’s idea of the world.

I feel Candide and the main character, Orgon in Tartuffe are very similar. They are both naïve and lack of their own minds. Candide was influenced by Doctor Pangloss’ philosophy and Orgon was affected by the hypocrite, Tartuffe. Both Candide and Orgon blindly followed the wrong person and hardly try to question their teachings. It is obvious that Candide and Orgon were both misguided. However, both characters eventually found out the truth after they encountered various misfortunes.

Overall, this novel is very interesting and meaningful. Voltaire depict a story of a poor man, Candide in order to reflect the flaws of optimism. Candide was living in his utopia world at first. However, it is impossible to use the philosophy to explain everything that Candide has experienced after he left the castle. I believe we should be optimistic about life but everything has a limit. If we are being too optimistic about everything, then we will lose many chances to improve our lives. Life is controlled by ourselves. It is important to work hard to achieve your dream instead of waiting for all the great things happen.