Man Was Not Born To An Easy Life.

When we walk through our path of life, different current push as in different directions. These currents lead us towards decision making. They can be influences, experiences, anything that happens in our everyday life. For Candide, these currents are two characters: Martin and Pangloss. One embraces pessimism and the other optimism, and he yet remains in the middle, in the duality of these two different philosophies.

In chapter 21 we are introduced to Martin, a man who later on accompanies Candide through his remaining adventures. Like Pangloss, he is also a philosopher but he believes “that man was created by the forces of evil and not by the forces of good” (4) He is a pessimist that firmly believes that nothing good con happen and that work is the only thing “to make life bearable” (144) Pangloss, believes the opposite, “that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”(back cover) he sees all wrong that happens as if it were not important because in some way, that wrong has to be for the best.

Throughout the novel Candide lives through both of these philosophy as you could say man does throughout life. He mainly believes in Pangloss philosophy but then when he starts traveling with Martin he realizes how Pangloss was not always right and that Martin may have a point. While reading I asked myself what is optimism? And Candide answered that questions for me by saying “it’s the passion for maintaining that all is right when all goes wrong with us.”(86) Then I thought that pessimism should be the passion for maintaining that all goes wrong when it goes right. With this definition it becomes clear that weather you decide if you think negative or positive that all depends on you. Take Candide for example, there were some parts of the story where he questioned Pangloss philosophy and others when he did not agree with Martin. By situations that he lived, and that is what happens to all humans, Candide was able to figure out that you can’t choose one extreme because in life there are going to be good and bad moments.

There comes a point where neither of the two philosophies is strong enough so they contradict each other. We must not go to either of the two extremes but be aware that in life we are encounter to encounter situations where both of these are going to be needed. In the end the only thing that is true is that “when man was placed in the garden of Eden, he was put there to dress it and to keep it, to work, in fact; wich proves that man was not born to an easy life”(144)