Wait, did that just really happen?

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Wow, Candide so far is just… where does one even begin? This story is so tragic that at some points I caught myself audibly laughing while reading it because it all seems too horrible or misfortunate to be true. The other day someone asked me what I was reading, and when I began to explain what the book was about, the look on their face showed such horror that I again laughed because for some reason it is all too ridiculous of a tale for me to be able to take it seriously. After reading a few of the short chapters, I thought to myself, “Ok, there is no possible way that this can get any worse,” and then surely, it does! In Chapters 11 and 12 we hear the story of the poor old woman and what horrors have happened to her in her lifetime. For God’s sake, the poor woman only has one butt-cheek because of the fact that the other was chopped off to be fed to twenty janissaries who all died only hours later! Can you imagine what that must be like? Knowing that you forever only have one butt-cheek because it was chopped off for essentially no reason?! On the contrary, Dr. Pangloss would say that it did have a purpose and that the poor woman was destined to only have one butt-cheek and that in losing her butt-cheek she was serving an end purpose. I don’t know quite how I feel about this. I can’t understand why something so cruel and unnecessary would have a purpose. I guess that would have to be my question for this blog post: does everything that happens happen for a reason? 

P.S I commented on Abigail and Will's 

Comments

  1. Darby CallicuttSeptember 25, 2017 at 6:55 PM

    I think that is the whole point of the book. It does all seem pretty ridiculous to me though. Maybe in Pangloss would not have said that all things happen for a reason maybe the book would have turned out differently.... hmmm....

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  2. Ty GoramSeptember 25, 2017 at 8:34 PM

    I would say that yes, everything that happens happens for a reason. I have a feeling that events happen because they are meant to, and you can't stop them no matter what. All you can do is change the people who it happens to.

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  3. Will BradySeptember 25, 2017 at 8:46 PM

    SOME things happen for a reason, definitely. But saying that EVERYTHING does takes us back to those slippery free will debates Milton so generously left us.

    I wouldn't say that everything happens for a reason. Going strictly off the Christian faith, I'm pretty sure God would rather not have forty million babies murdered in less than half a century. Now, I'll always believe that God can USE the tragedies through some means to reveal Himself to us, but that doesn't mean He decided to arrange things in such a way that abortion would tear the country apart. That's what the phrase "Everything happens for a reason" implies: "God decided this would happen." I would prefer to say "A good end can be made out of anything that happens." God can definitely make good of a bad situation, I think we can agree.

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  4. Natalie SchulerSeptember 25, 2017 at 9:42 PM

    I would say that in life everything does happen for a reason, but when it comes to fiction--especially with Voltaire--does everything have to happen for a reason?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Phillip VoSeptember 25, 2017 at 9:47 PM

    Of course this book is a fictional work, and the plot may seem very cruel (because it is) but I think that might be the point. At some points we have to look at our situation and rather than try treason the origin, such as the case of Job's FRIENDS (scriptural references yay), we take up a worshipful heart of obedience.

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  6. Trey NorthcuttSeptember 26, 2017 at 12:06 AM

    That's pretty much the point I think; to keep your optimism in the worst of times, and to remember that everything happens for a reason. Now, for Candide the character, this is easy for him to remember, as he's a fictional character, but in real life, it's hard to keep that mindset in check.

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