Not a Fairytale

I woke up this morning by a friend calling me, his call made me realize that I had to finish the boring book we were reading in english: Candide. I did everything that is possible to avoid that responsibility until I realized I had more homework and it was better for me to start. 

It's frustrating to read something that doesn't interest you but most of all that even if your trying to like  the story you just can't seem to be attracted to it. I read the book with that mentality until, I read the most disappointing words that Voltaire had ever written: "At he bottom of his heart Candide had no wish to marry Cunégode"(138).  Isn't it a bit pathetic? After all he went through and he didn't want to marry her? Voltaire actually made me waste my time for that kind of ending. Well I know it is dramatic irony and we are learning how to identify satire but AGH!! I guess in the end everyone expects a happy ending.

 There is always something you wish for so badly that you can't even sleep, and you go through such unnecessary stuff just to get what you want. Sadly it never ends as you expected it. 

In the case Candide we can see it when Cacombo says to Candide that, "but what is sadder still is that she has lost her beauty and has become horribly ugly"(129). After all he went through he had to deal with an ugly wife? That is just terrible. 

Well that is what you think through the naked eye, but I came to my own conclusion that it is not the result what makes you happy but what you had to go through even if you end up disappointed. As Pangloss said:"There is a chain of events in the best of all possible worlds; for if you had not been turned out of a beautiful mansion at the point of a jackboot for the love of Lady Conégonde, and if you had not been involved in the Inquisition, and had not wandered over America on foot, and had not stuck the Baron with your sword, and lost all those sheep you brought from ELdorado, you would not be here eating candied fruit and pistachio nuts"(144). Obviously it was not "all is for the best" as Candide always believed, he never dreamed of this. But at least he got what he wanted and could experience things he never imagined to. He got Pangloss back, he had a small farm and had the love of his life, even if she was ugly.

Surely the optimism  here is truly disqualified, Voltaire is underestimating the hope people have. Just look at the stories ending. But what will be of us without hope? That was the virtue he had that made him overcome all of his experiences. 

We never have a happy ending, but at least we go through life wishing for one. It may not have been what they expected but they are making the best out of what they have.