The story of Candide is one full of luck and chance encounters that keeps him alive. As our humble protagonist goes about his life he is struck constantly with many misfortunes and should, at least by the end, be dead. While I am not even close to the end of the story, I can see that he is a smart mouthed incredibly lucky kid that ironically defies all the reasoning that he hopes to seek out.

For example, in the beginning our hero is thrown out of his lovely castle and is forced to wander the earth because he fell in love with the Barons daughter. His first stroke of luck comes when he finds the Buglars that take-him-in and attempt to make him a part of them. When he goes on a simple walk he is suspected of abandoning them and is sentenced to being beaten to death, but is spared when the king grants him a royal pardon, then he makes his actual escape.

How is this possibly lucky for Candide, well when he escapes to Holland, he meets his old tutor, Pangloss and learns that the Buglars whom he inadvertently joined stormed the castle and that everyone died, even his love Cunegonde. Candide gets even luckier when in Portugal during the execution ceremony where Dr. Pangloss is killed, he is spared once again thanks to a second earthquake. To top off his luck, a woman finds him and helps him heal the wounds suffered from the earthquake, and then takes him to his lover Cunegonde, whom is not dead, and they begin another adventure.

To summarize, Candide is simply one lucky SOB, that is trying to make sence of what exactly the universe is doing to him. To end this somewhat of a rant I ask you, How much luck does Candide have? And what will happen should it run out?