Candide

As I kept reading I found very ridiculous passages in the text, "Pangloss lost only an eye and an ear." This texts shows how satirical this work is because it said ONLY an eye and an ear, most people would be devastated but the author just mentions this tragedy in passing. One thing that I have noticed in this piece is that there aren't many references to time, you don't know if it is day or night most of the time and I was surprised to discover that a few years had passed. I wonder if this method is used as a confusing element to add with the strange encounters and places that Candide visits. This book has many tragedies in it, for example Pangloss is killed but luckily throughout all his adventures Candide survives even if all the skin has been whipped off his back. There is a lot of exaggeration in the novel to add drama and make each short scene more intense for the reader but this exaggeration can make even the most tragic even comical.

The novel had a turning point when Cunegonde is found alive because now Candide becomes not only a heroic man who has gone through torture and war but also is braver with his love at his side. Now we get to hear Cunegonde's stories of her abuse and her family's murder and is even more dramatic than Candide. "You can well imagine how distracted I was. One moment I was almost beside myself with frenzy, the next I was at death's door from very faintness." This is a perfect example of how over dramatic Cunegonde was but it was a good way for the readers to feel the contrasting emotions. As far as I have read I found that the old woman's story was the most dramatic and the most fictional of all of the events that gave me an impression of complete ridicule of misfortune. The story ridicules many areas of every day life like the church, the government etc. The author tries to lighten up any possible terrible situation by making fun of each by exaggerating and using sarcasm, ironies and paradoxes. That is why the book is also called "Optimism" because he creates terrible situations but hast the most hopeful character experience them so that he can still be content with the most awful situations.