Great Works of Literature II

I did not have any background on Chinese Literature, so it was interesting just to see how the story was going to turn out. The style of the novel was what caught my attention. The constant shift from prose to verse is something that I hadn’t encountered before. I felt that the verses added a new element to the story, separating it from the common novel. It gave it different perspective from the typical narration.

It was great to know that this story had a historical foundation on the travels of the monk Tripitaka. Although this was the first time I heard anything about Tripitaka, I feel that such additions always enriches the story because they offer a unique storytelling of history. I can see a connection to Voltaire’s Candide because he also used historical events to enrich his own tale. I found it laughable that although the stone monkey had enjoyed an “insouciant existence for three or four hundred,” he still felt sad about death and wished to procure immortality. I think this might have been done to scoff the human desire for eternal life and the dissatisfaction of a limited one. The stone monkey’s personality was probably the most amusing part of the reading.

In my opinion, I believe, Candide, for the first half of his journey, dealt with the misfortunes of discovering that men are not equal, and that Pangloss’s philosophical belief, “Everything happens for the best” is not always true, but rather “everything happens for a reason”. If not for the help given to him by Cacambo, with his ability to keep composure during their hardships, and the generosity from the king of Eldorado, Candide would have never survived his journey. Even after Candide found areas of the world that fallow, beliefs and philosophical values, much like Pangloss’s, he still refused not to give up looking for Cunegonde. It wasn’t until Candide met Martin, that he realized the both Pangloss, and Martins philosophies were in some ways correct. What was confusing to me was how everyone who seemed to have experienced a horrible death, apparently were still alive. In addition, Candide, after all he went through, didn’t even want to marry Cunegonde, so his blind optimism wasn’t even worth it, unless it’s true that everything done happen for a reason.

I feel that in the end, Candide believed that life isn’t about speculating every aspect of how the world’s goods and evils balance our lives. Different things happen for different reasons, and sometimes there not much, us humans can do about it. As humans we have to find a medium ground, were we can spend the majority of time working hard and being proud of it, and enjoying the time that we have here, because life is short, regardless of how long one lives for.

It was interesting to watch Candide’s transformation through out the story. He went from blindly following Pangloss’s teaching, to developing his own arguments/views on the ways in which the world operates. He understood from the many misfortunes and adventures he underwent that everything does not always happen “for the best of all possible worlds”. Otherwise he could have just remained in Eldorado , where there were fortunes and delights galore. Rather, he chose to find his love Cunegonde and live with the rest of the characters on a farm. On this farm, however, misery seemed to overwhelm each one of them in its own way, shape, and form. This book seems to show the two extremes between happiness and misery, as there never seems to be an in between. Voltaire’s satirical work goes through great lengths to prove the downfalls of optimistic thinking that philosophers during that time period have had, and the foolishness of others to follow it.

Voltaire’s inclusion of Martin into the later chapters, helped show a great contrast between extreme positive and extreme negative thinking. Martin’s outlook on life is that it is and always has been a miserable experience for all those who endure it, and that men were hurting/killing each other since the beginning of time. His views are the complete opposite of those than Pangloss, as he has an entirely pessimistic outlook on life. But my question becomes, are these two extremes the only one’s that can possibly exist? Do people not live believing occasionally in one outlook, and at other times the other depending on their given situation?

Voltaire took us to great tour of different cultures, philosophic and religious point of view around throughout this oeuvre. We received some description of the characters and the behavior of the people of each places where candid passed by. The text describes how misfortunate one can become despite one’s present social rank and wealth, referring to Mlle. Cunegonde, the old women the baron and the six strangers dethroned. According the old women “no matter how misfortunate you are, someone else’s misfortune is greater yours”. The biggest disturbance that occurred to me was when people just kept coming back from death.

When it comes to Candide being naïve   over the old Plangloss’s saying of that “everything is for the best of the world”, I did not really get disturbed until he arrived in Eldorado.  Where, he could finally live a pleasant life with peace of mind, but he just decided to leave such great place for the sake of his beloved Cunegonde. However, his re action can be presented as it was his purpose in life to obtain her back and to live happily ever after with her. We all have a purpose in life, which keep us up in the morning and accomplish our goals in order to reach that purpose. Wouldn’t life be so meaning less if no one had a purpose?