Candide = Forrest Gump???

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Throughout the first five chapters or so, I was struck by just how annoyingly naive and optimistic Candide is. First, he's dumb enough to get himself enlisted into the army without realizing it; then, he has no understanding or care for the religious movements around him, which were a huge deal at the time *cough cough* the Inquisition *cough*, which leads to him getting poop dumped on his head. Not to mention, he's obsessed with two things: 1) Cunegonde and 2) Pangloss' annoying utopian views of the world. And while he may think incredibly highly of Pangloss, let's not neglect to note that when Candide meets him in the village, he doesn't even stop to listen to Pangloss' story before asking about Cunegonde. Though I don't know much about the history of the time in which Candide's story is placed, I am a big fan of footnotes. As I began to see how often Candide kept getting himself into big historic events, yet surviving against all odds- the war, the earthquake, the crazy fires, the inquisition, etc- I began to think. Who do we know that is kind of slow, very optimistic, obsessed with one specific girl, and finds himself involved in many historic events? Forrest Gump.
Okay, it's not a 100% fool-proof parallel, but it is valid in a few ways. Both gentlemen excel through the military ranks quickly, both continually find themselves escaping harm over and over again, and both are characterized from the beginning as very innocent. As we see, Candide has already killed three men by the end of chapter 15 "I am the mildest man alive, yet I have now killed three men, two of them priests" (38), whereas Forrest remains good despite going through many hardships and painful experiences. Candide appears to be turning sour; he kills anyone he thinks will threaten his life or Cunegonde's, and he makes these fatal decisions in a matter of seconds with little to no thought. I'm curious to see where Candide's story will go from here, honestly.

PS I commented on Sophia and Darby's posts. 

Comments

  1. Natalie SchulerSeptember 25, 2017 at 9:40 PM

    I see the parallel between Forrest Gump and Candide, however, the biggest difference between the two is that although they both are naive and gullible, bad things keep happening to Candide and good things keep happening to Forrest. There reaches a point in _Candide_ where all of the horrible tragedies become unfortunately comical...am I the only one who feels that?

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