Utopia in Candide
Marco Flores
9/24/12
Utopian Lifestyle Throughout much literature such as Candide, by Voltaire, a concept of a Utopia is introduced. In this book, the utopian society was represented by El Dorado. Here, no realistic world ideals were present, as they were completely satisfied with what they had. They did not pray to God for help or even were curious enough to venture off outside the premises of their city. Lack of curiosity, which is completely against the norm of human nature, was what made them believe they have a perfect society. Most of all, in creating a fictional utopian society, Voltaire is satirizing classical European ways of thought, rather referring to them as the dystopia of the world. Utopias are essentially ideal societies that could never be duplicated in the real world of things. It is literally a fictional way of life that could only be strived for and never be reached. In the novel, they stumble upon El Dorado which is shown to be a magical utopian society. All men are kind and equal to each other and no one seems to want “more”, which we as Americans have been accustomed to. They are not seeking to improve themselves in society, which is a concept so baffling for us to understand. It is difficult for us to understand because as a society the motto we live by is “we want more” and that is why we are far and away from a utopian society. We are never satisfied with what we have, while there in El Dorado, they simply are complacent with where they are. Unlike the citizens of El Dorado, that society was not achievable for Candide and Cacambo. Being an outsider, Candide could not simply drop his ideals to follow those of El Dorado, where gold and gems are just pebbles which they walk upon. Unlike the kids of El Dorado, they could not just play with the precious metals as if they had no value. Not only do their citizens undervalue gems which would make them prosperous throughout the world, but they are satisfied and do not worship nor kill those
9/24/12
Utopian Lifestyle Throughout much literature such as Candide, by Voltaire, a concept of a Utopia is introduced. In this book, the utopian society was represented by El Dorado. Here, no realistic world ideals were present, as they were completely satisfied with what they had. They did not pray to God for help or even were curious enough to venture off outside the premises of their city. Lack of curiosity, which is completely against the norm of human nature, was what made them believe they have a perfect society. Most of all, in creating a fictional utopian society, Voltaire is satirizing classical European ways of thought, rather referring to them as the dystopia of the world. Utopias are essentially ideal societies that could never be duplicated in the real world of things. It is literally a fictional way of life that could only be strived for and never be reached. In the novel, they stumble upon El Dorado which is shown to be a magical utopian society. All men are kind and equal to each other and no one seems to want “more”, which we as Americans have been accustomed to. They are not seeking to improve themselves in society, which is a concept so baffling for us to understand. It is difficult for us to understand because as a society the motto we live by is “we want more” and that is why we are far and away from a utopian society. We are never satisfied with what we have, while there in El Dorado, they simply are complacent with where they are. Unlike the citizens of El Dorado, that society was not achievable for Candide and Cacambo. Being an outsider, Candide could not simply drop his ideals to follow those of El Dorado, where gold and gems are just pebbles which they walk upon. Unlike the kids of El Dorado, they could not just play with the precious metals as if they had no value. Not only do their citizens undervalue gems which would make them prosperous throughout the world, but they are satisfied and do not worship nor kill those