Candide written by Voltaire mainly talked about the expedition of Candide, a man raised in optimism but gradually recognize the real essence of the world through all the miseries and blessings, and finally Voltaire draw the conclusion of “we must cultivate our garden”.
The novel was full of fantasy, and as a western tradition, it described South America in a visionary tone. The description of “El Dorado” reminded me of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and “Aladdin”. The illusion of treasury in a faraway kingdom is a traditional topic of western stories.
treasury in the story of Alibaba
The novel contained much philosophical thoughts and criticized Lebnizian optimism, but it did all of this thorough the means of storytelling, and obviously the story was not convincing. However, expedition novels had always been popular from “Around the World in Eighty Days” written by Jules Verne to “The Alchemist” written by Paulo Coelho, and even the movie “life of Pi” in 2012 continued this theme. The story of Candide is not the most bizarre one, but it’s so influential and really took a place in French literature.
Around the World in Eighty Days also contained a worldwide expedition
Though the development of science is quite complete and we all get scientific education, we are still in favor of fantasy, because there are metaphors in the stories. We get resonance of Candide, not because we suffered same thing, but because we all suffered from miseries and got blessings. Though they got exaggerated in the novel, but the feeling was same, and the conclusion of cultivating the garden, which is a metaphor of one’s heart is universal.
Everybody could view his own life as an expedition, and we get educated through these expedition novels which wrote about others’ lives.
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