After his visit to El Dorado, Candide left the place being the richest man in the world. He had a few sheep and precious stone worth a great deal of money. Still, he had to walk all the way to Suriname, where he was planning on departing from, to head to Venice. After some time, he started to negotiate with a captain called Mr. Vanderdendur. At first “the captain suggested ten thousand piatres, and Candide agreed without hesitation.” (Pg. 88) This made the man ask for more, since he thought that money meant nothing for Candide. At last, Candide ended paying him thirty thousand piasters. On top of that, his sheep where loaded in another boat and “he set his sails, raised the anchor, and the wind favored him,” (Pg. 89) and Candide had to watch most of his richness get stolen away.
This unfortunate event got me thinking about the cleverness of Candide. Even though he tries to stay loyal to Pangloss´ philosophy, the people around him sometimes influence him. He gives in to things very easily and rarely wins an argument. I have reasons to believe that Candide is either naïve or just stupid. All though that does not take away the fact that he is also a good man.
As I was reading I started thinking about the movie Forest Gump, and the main character. Gump and Candide are very similar in their intelligence level, and their situation is also comparable. Forest Gump goes to war, where he was absolutely no idea what he is doing. Candide also has a war-like experience, but his true “war” is with life. He travels all around the world, suffering misfortunes, following the girl he loves. Both have trouble with love: Forrest is never loved back and Candide has not been able to be with the one he loves. The both of them get pushed around a lot and are always suffering misfortunes, and they don’t even understand the seriousness of them. Still, they have good intentions in every thing they do. Neither would be able to do any harm to anybody, and they always try to help every body. 
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