The French Revolution, lasting from 1789 to 1799 can be described as an age of varying emotions. Ranging from wars to Robespierre’s Reign of Terror and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, it could be described as a bloodied erat During this Lime, Voltaire 7 one of the men of Enlightenment — wrote Candide, a satire in response to “whatever is, is right”. Satire, though at times humorous, can be used to shed light on the worst of issues, such as famine and overpopulation in Ireland, or commonly known as A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift It’s safe to say, however, that publishing Candide during a very unstable era would be supplemental to helping a society. One of the 5 CS — content — asks that one summarize the section Candide, being a copious piece of literature, can be summarized like this: a young man named Candide is introduced to the concept of optimism.
Even though Candide may experience some terrible moments throughout the reading, the key was to remain optimistic throughout, Voltaire ends Candide with the concept of cultivating our garden. The garden represents life 7 when Voltaire encourages the readers to cultivate our garden, he is telling them to make every pan of your life vaster and vaster. Though Candide does poke fun at religion, government, ways of thinking and many more, this can actually help send a message As human beings, maybe we don’t always listen to the serious stuff I remember being told once that the key to being a great comedian is to address the things that no one else will. Voltaire tried to address them just like most modern satirists would Though these issues were serious, adding humor to them allow readers to think twice about the issues.
Additionally, Voltaire’s ideas are very similar to those of John Locke 7 John Locke was basically an optimist too, coining the term “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, I feel that Voltaire was actually trying to get that point across in Candide with optimism 7 all of that can be achieved, as long as you continue to persevere and remain optimistic. In response to the main point of this assignment, I honestly feel as though life can be compared to a garden. A garden can have more and more flowers added overtime — those extra flowers represent our experiences in life. Eventually, those flowers may die at one point, but come back to life later in the year, Meaning, we are either re-living those experiences, or we’re using those experiences as lessons in life. So, we must continue to cultivate our garden, and offer to help cultivate others Human beings don‘t learn things on their own; they need to learn from others.
As they learn from others, they become smarter, wiser and less ignorant towards the world. Helping cultivate another’s garden is simple: all that is needed is to offer help when someone definitely needs it. Our garden can only become more beautiful if we cultivate someone else‘s first, In class, we recently watched Amadeus, a biopic about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart lived during the French Revolution, though it took place in Vienna, Austria. In the movie, one of the issues was as to whether Mozart should write an opera in Italian. In terms of coherence, this actually has plenty to do with the concept of cultivating one‘s garden. Though the Austrians didn’t get along very well with the Italians during that time, Mozart chose to write it in Italian to be outside the box. The idea of cultivating one’s garden has plenty to do with thinking out of the box.
That being said, without thinking that way, Mozart won‘t become vaster in knowledge. Additionally, neither will those who adore him as a musician. It’s amazing how even humor can shed light to the most serious of issues. It’s also interesting when that humor allows you to move forward in bad situations. I find this similar to what I wrote in my last mini report — dwelling won’t make anything better. The right thing to do can Vary 7 you can either move on, or use that experience to become a better person. My present understanding of the French Revolution could be vaster, however, just reading Candide doesn’t just make me more knowledgeable, but it also gives me a lesson on life. Never stick to your garden — always continue to seek knowledge by observing your neighbor plant his flowers.
