Voltaire was a famous French writer, historian and philosopher during the age of Enlishentment. His writing affected lots of people during that time. One of his novel, “Candide” represents his satire of Optimism through the “ special traveling” experience of Candide. This short novel is interesting because it separate the whole novel into pieces of story that make readers keep reading it without feeling boring. Candide has “honest mind with great simplicity of heart” and believes what Pangloss’s optimistic thought that “the best of all possible world.”In Chapter one, Voltaire exactly explains the meaning of the name of this novel “Candide or Optimism” Its opening answers me my question for this title and helps me understand it better. When I keep reading this novel, I realize the difficult live Candide had experience and how he changes his believe that not all things are best in the world. Candide was kicked out of castle where he lived in because he loves Cunegonede. His traveling let him know that the world is cruel, not always optimistic. He escapes from Bulgars and then faces Earthquake in Lisbon. He views the darkness and autocracy of church, and then he meets his love and knows her experience. Although he makes some kindness people, he still sees how the world is. He realizes that the all things in the world are not perfect and best. Factors outside and experience change Candide‘s believe.            

         When I read this novel, I realize that thoughts always change when people experience more. For a child, food and playing will make them very happy because they are not worried about other things. As a student, they believe that their most important things are study. When they grow up as adults, they experience a lot and know how to survive in the world. They are more mature and know how to deal with different problems. In the situation of adults, Study and playing are not their major things in their life. They believe that they should work study and earn money for their families.

So this week the topic of the post is Free choice. You would think that being that Free choice means you can write about what you want, that it will be easy. Think again, it took me a whole day to think about something so i just decided to start typing. I believe that is one of the reason Free choice is a topic.

This course is a lot of free writing and i truly enjoy it. I am someone who at times just likes to write to let out my emotions or to jot down what i am thinking about and what is on my mind. Writing to me is a passion. When you sit down and write all your emotions and thoughts are reflected in your writing. The style in which you write is a sort of indicator of who you are as a person. I enjoy writing columns about topics that enhance the lives of others since i thoroughly enjoy reading about things that enhance my own life. That’s my choice of writing. Certain people write non-fiction stories, others write poems. My question is if you were told you were going to die tomorrow, what would you write and what would the topic be about?

Voltaire’s Candide is a fascinating work. It never makes you feel boring because it reads like an adventure story of Candide. Contradictions exist in Candide’s life. On one hand, he is a misfortune man when he was kick out of the castle because of his forbidden love with Cunégonde. Physical and mental pains torture Candide, for example, serious injury on his body and the death of Jacques and Pangloss. One the other hand, luck always accompanies him because some kind people, such as, Jacques and the old lady, who save his life. The coincidences are full of the story, like Candide meets Pangloss and Cunégonde after the castle was invaded. All the features above create a fascinating story. Nevertheless, it is not difficulty to find the trace of the author’s life in the. Writers tend to mix their own life experience into their works, because it is much easier to express their real emotions into their works. It makes theirs work closer to the real life. Candide’s complex experience, such as, the unstable life of escaping, is similar to Voltaire’s experience, that is influenced by some political reasons. In the story, Candide is always thinking about the philosophy problems like whether the tutor Pangloss’s theory is right or wrong. In the real life, Voltaire has his own philosophy, and it is different from Alexander Pope’s assertion and Gottfried Wilhelm. Just like Voltaire, Candide is looking for the philosophy which he believes right. Does the author want to prove this philosophy is right in the story?

After my father told me the misfortune life of my grandmother, I’m always thinking about writing her story because it is a miserable true story. I lived with my grandmother for more than sixteen years, but she never makes me feel pessimistic, and I did not hear about her experience until she left the world. If I can write it well, it will be a great novel. However, I never have the courage to raise my pen, since too many moods and feelings are beyond my experience, such as, married a man, who you do not love or a single mother raised six children in poverty. All these heartbreaking experience cannot be described well after you really suffered them. So the story of my grandmother may never be fascinating except it comes from my grandmother’s pen. In terms of Voltaire’s work Candide, it seems like a story, and I also believe it is the story from the author’s life experience. What kind of idea of thesis does the author want the readers to know about? His philosophy idea of understanding of world, or the others ?