As I finished reading this story, I must say that it was one the few stories I ever came across that actually kept me interested and entertained the whole time. I loved how Voltaire had Candide struggled with trouble after trouble and how most of what he did in the story was either escaping or helping others. As he escaped from troubles and helping others, he used that time to observe the world and thought to himself, “there is a very little amount of happiness in this world.”
In addition, I thought it was a really reasonable idea by Voltaire to have Candide lost his faith in optimism for a moment before gaining it back again after the trader’s ship sunk because it’d be a bit unreasonable to me otherwise. He was going through too many miseries to have that optimistic feeling “up high” the whole time.
Another aspect that I noticed throughout the story was that Candide always had somebody to help him no matter where he was. In my opinion, I didn’t think that was odd because I believe in causes and effects. I believe in being rewarded for doing good deeds. Due to his honesty, kindness and his reasonable mind, Candide had help everywhere he went and always came close to death but luck was always with him. This is another reason why I am a firm believer in everything does happen for a reason and one’s actions, large or small, would always count at the end of the day.
