FREE ESSAY ON CANDIDE VS. THE BOOK OF JOB

CANDIDE VS. THE BOOK OF JOB

Candide and the Book of Job
Religion has been a staple of human society since the dawn of recorded history and
probably traces back even further. All religions found in history have one common theme
between them besides their belief in a supreme power. Each religion helps explain what
man cannot. Since Emperor Constantine changed the Roman Empire to Christianity, the faith
has dominated western civilization. Voltaire, one of the most prominent philosophers of
the Enlightenment, deals with the principles of Christianity in the book, Candide.
Through an allegory of the Book of Job in the Old Testament of the Bible, Voltaire
questions the struggles of men on Earth.
Voltaire's main character, Candide, is somewhat of a simple man living a happy life in
the castle of the Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh. Voltaire chooses the name Candide, a French
adjective rooted in the Latin word "candidus" or white, for this character to show that
he is an innocent person with good intentions. He lives here with the Baron because he is
the illegitimate son of the Baron's sister who was unwilling to marry his father since he
was poor. Voltaire has Candide born out of wedlock, a sin according to Christian
principles, to prove that he is born into sin. Candide is raised in the castle along with
the Baron's son and daughter, Cunegonde, and the three of them are taught by Pangloss.
Pangloss teaches a philosophy known as optimism to the three children. Optimism believes
that this is the best of all possible worlds and all events on Earth are due to cause and
effect. The philosophy also holds that every event is necessary for one reason or
another. Pangloss's teachings are representative of the Christian religion. According to
the word of God, every man who believes in him and asks for forgiveness of his sins
receives eternal life, the best possible world. Unfortunately, due to the sins of Adam
and Eve, man must live life on Earth before he can reach the perfection of Heaven, and
the trials of life on Earth, brought on by the Devil, are meant to test man's faith in
God.
In the Book of Job, Job is a man raised on strong Christian principles. He believes
strongly in the word of God and practices all of the duties set forth by God for man on
Earth to follow to gain his favor. Job lives before the crucifixion of Christ that
promises forgiveness for all sins but he is the closest man alive to following the will
of a vengeful God. Both Job and Candide follow their philosophies strictly while
everything remains good in their lives.
Candide finds his world crashing around him after he is caught by the Baron kissing
Cunegonde, and he is flogged and banished from the castle. Shortly after his departure,
Bulgarian armies find him and, as Voltaire describes, he is forced "to run the gauntlet
thirty-six times and actually endured two floggings. The regiment was composed of two
thousand men. That made four thousand strokes, which lay open every muscle and nerve from
his nape to his butt." Eventually the King of Bulgaria saves him, and he escapes to find
Pangloss, now a beggar. Pangloss tells of the destruction of the castle of the Baron
Thunder-ten-tronckh and the apparent death of the family.
Although devastated by the loss of his love Cunegonde, Candide manages to keep his belief
in optimism. Pangloss aides his belief by stating that he has caught a venereal disease
that can be traced back to the Americas, but he believes that it is okay due to his
belief in optimism. He explains to Candide,
". . . it's an indispensable part of the best of worlds a necessary ingredient; if
Columbus in an island of America had not caught the disease, which poisons the source of
generation, and often indeed prevents generation, we should not have chocolate and
cochineal."
Job also manages to keep his beliefs through his first trials of faith. After Satan
challenges God that Job cannot keep his strong faith if he did not have his magnificent
success, God tells Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on
the man himself do not lay a finger." Satan preys on every one of Job's livestock, as
well as his children, killing them all. Job responds by kneeling in prayer before the
Lord upon hearing the awful news. He prays, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and
naked I will depart. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord
be praised."
Voltaire continues his allegory of the Book of Job when he sends Candide and Pangloss to
Lisbon. In Lisbon is where Candide, like Job, begins to lose faith. Job loses his faith
after God gives the Devil permission to hurt, but not kill, him so that Job can continue
to prove his undying devotion to God. The Devil afflicts Job with sores from head to toe,
and his wife begins to question the purpose of God's punishments. Job, still managing to
keep his faith, scorns his wife, claiming, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall
we accept good from God and not trouble." His faith disappears over the next week,
though, as he continues to endure the pain and suffering. While sitting among his three
close friends, Job finally speaks for the first time in a week and regrets the day of his
birth.
"May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, 'A boy is born!' That day -
may it turn to darkness; may God never care about it; may no light shine upon it . . ..
May those who curse days curse that day."
Candide's next trial of faith involves more than personal affliction. He arrives in
Lisbon to experience an earthquake that kills thirty thousand people of the city. Soon
after Pangloss and Candide are arrested as heretics and brought for punishment in an
auto-da-fe because "it was decided by the university of Coimbre that the sight of several
persons being slowly burned in great ceremony is an infallible secret for preventing
earthquakes." Candide's crime is small so he only receives another flogging, but the
Spanish Inquisition had found Pangloss guilty of heresy. After his beating, Candide is
forced to watch Pangloss hanged. At this point, begins to question Pangloss's teachings.
He asks himself, "If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others?"
Voltaire ends his allegory to the Book of Job at this point in the story. Instead
Voltaire chooses to give Candide a different ending which questions the accuracy of a
dependency on faith. In the Book of Job, three of Job's friends try to convince him to
not be dismayed in the Lord due to the curses that have been stricken upon him because He
is the only man who can rid Job of his problems. Job questions his friends by saying,
"Indeed this is true, but how can a man be righteous before God?" He explains that there
is nothing more that he can do to gain God's praises and eventually convinces his friends
that he is right.
Finally Elijah, a young man who has listened to the argument, steps in and speaks on the
Lord's behalf. He explains to Job that no man can claim that there is nothing else he can
do to praise God because that is a sin. Elijah also tells Job that demanding to speak
with the Lord and receive explanation for his work is a sin. Elijah concludes by saying,

"The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great
righteousness, he does not oppress. Therefore, men revere him. For does he not have
regard for all the wise in heart."
Elijah is complemented by the Lord speaking to Job from above. The Lord asks Job to
repent his sins, and he does by answering,
"I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, 'Who is
this that obscured my counsel without knowledge?' Surely I spoke of things that I did not
understand, things too wonderful for me to know."
The Lord forgives Job and his three friends that did not continue to attempt to help Job
make peace with the Lord. God also chose to repay Job for all that he had lost and
suffered through by making him more wealthy than before and helping him to create a new
family. He also let Job enjoy this good life for another 140 years.
The Book of Job concludes with faith in God prevailing over everything else. Voltaire
takes a different approach to the end of Candide. Voltaire allows Candide to regain some
of his faith by having Cunegonde, whom he thought was dead, return into his life with an
old woman. She tells him her story of despair and Candide kills her two other suitors to
regain her completely. The group escapes Spain, and the old woman tells the story of her
life to Candide, which not only contradicts his faith in optimism but also mocks the
rules of the Catholic church, part of the Christian faith that optimism is a symbol of.
Candide's faith takes another blow when he is forced to flee Buenos Aires and leave
Cunegonde behind. Things get worse for Candide who runs into Cunegonde's brother and is
forced to kill him after he flies into a rage when Candide mentions his plan to marry
Cunegonde. After avoiding another near death situation, Candide and his newest companion,
Cacambo, arrive in the magnificent country of Eldorado. Voltaire hints through two
comments by Candide that Eldorado may actually be the only country where faith in
optimism is justifiable. Candide says, "In spite of what Dr. Pangloss said, I often
noticed that everything went very ill in Westphalia." He also remarks, "If our friend
Pangloss had seen Eldorado, he would not have said that the castle of Thunder-ten-tronckh
was the best of all that exists on earth; certainly a man should travel." Both of these
comments show that Candide can believe in optimism here. Voltaire may also be hinting
through symbolism that this is the only country where Christianity is done right.
Eldorado is symbolic of the state of Pennsylvania, which Voltaire respected for its way
of government and religion.
Upon leaving Eldorado in search of Cunegonde, Candide meets an aging philosopher named
Martin who helps him distrust Pangloss's theory of optimism. After trips to France and
England, Candide and Martin reach Venice where they meet Paquette, the maid that gave
Pangloss a venereal disease, and Friar Giroflee. The two prove to Candide that most
everyone is miserable. He finally travels to Turkey and meets the Baron's son and
Pangloss while traveling the Black Sea. The group continues on and eventually finds
Cunegonde and the old woman, but Cunegonde is now ugly.
While in Turkey, the group debates the theory of optimism, and Pangloss admits he never
believed in it and was always miserable. The group discusses different theories before
realizing the only thing to get one through life is working to avoid thinking about other
things. The group all works together on a farm and each finds a niche to fill. They all
enjoy themselves through hard work and find life less miserable. Pangloss makes one last
attempt to convince Candide about the theory of optimism by saying,
"All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; for, after all, if you
had not been driven from a fine castle for being kicked in the backside for love of Miss
Cunegonde, if you hadn't been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn't traveled across
America on foot, if you hadn't given a good sword thrust to the Baron, if you hadn't lost
all of your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn't be sitting here eating
candied citron and pistachios."
Candide replies to the theory of optimism by commenting, "That is very well put but we
must cultivate our garden."
Voltaire tries to make clear through his ending that while God may exist and have a plan
for everyone, as seen in the Book of Job and Candide's acceptance of Pangloss's last shot
at optimism, hard work is more important to success on Earth than anything else. Voltaire
shows in the book that if Candide had stopped searching as hard as he did for Cunegonde
and had placed all of his faith in God to work things out, nothing would have happened.
Voltaire is unwilling to place religion as the key to success on Earth and therefore has
Candide determine that hard work, represented symbolically by cultivating one's garden,
is the first priority in life.
Voltaire starts Candide with an allegory of the Book of Job to lay the context for a
symbolic representation of his beliefs on Christianity as it existed in the world during
his life. Voltaire altered the ending from the of Job's conclusion to show that hard
work, not religious perfection was the key to success in Europe, but he also hinted that
Christianity in America may finally have a good balance between faith in God and a
successful society on Earth.
Bibliography
The Book of Job
Candide