And at the End...

As I finished the book, the last sentence “´That´s true enough,´ said Candide; ´but we must go and work in the garden.´” (Pg. 144) stayed in my head for a long time. Why did Voltaire end the book like that? What connection does it have with the rest of the book? These were some of the questions that came to me. Then I started to analyze it and break it up into pieces, I came to the conclusion that it is the perfect ending for the book. It may be a very simple ending, but it is a very interesting one.

It is the end of an argument, but at the same time it ends the book and everything that has happened. What is the meaning of everything that has happened to Candide? To answer that question, we see different perspectives in the book. First there´s Pangloss the optimistic philosopher, and his belief that “everything is for the best.” In the other hand there´s Martin, that believes “that man was created by the forces of evil and not buy the forces of good.” (Pg. 92) In other words Martin thinks that the world and all the people in it are evil, unlike Pangloss. Also they have a very short conversation with a dervish and this is one of the few things that the man tells them “When His highness sends a ship to Egypt, do you suppose he worries whether the ship´s mice are confortable or not?” (Pg. 141) And when Pangloss asks him about the world, the origin of evils ext. he slams the door in their faces, an indirect way of saying he does not want to discuss the matter. This means that he does not believe in evil and good, he believes in God, and his plan.

It seems as though that simple-ending phrase could not answer my questions, but it does. Everything that happens to Candide and his acquaintance has no meaning. It does not matter whether he was almost killed by the inquisition of if he killed a priest and a baron. The fact that he has travel all around the world, getting mugged and being hurt, has no meaning. Every action has a reaction, every thing leads to another, but at the end, it does not matter at all. No matter what your past is, life goes on. There is a future ahead, and the past may influence it, but the world goes on. What ever happens in the past or present does not change the fact that there will always be a future.