David ZhouKelsoEnglish 10 SM13 March 2015Candide Response #2Candide by Voltaire is a wild, brash and swashbuckling picaresque novel one that features its protagonist journeying in various quests and adventures. Candide, the main character of the namesake novel, travels all over the world, spending time in Germany, Holland, Portugal, Argentina, France, Italy and finally Turkey. Voltaires plot is extremely fast-paced and ethereal, darting and floating around like a fly until it eventually lands. In addition, its also similar to a fly in that it is clearly meant to be an inflammatory work over the course of myriad travels to diverse lands and cultures, Voltaire deliberately picks out and meticulously fires off European stereotypes of each and every culture, one by one, until he has made some form of politically incorrect statement about virtually everyone.One of the most ironic statements ever, the best of all possible worlds, is the main ideology of the characters in the beginning of the novel. Dr. Pangloss, the metaphysico-theologo-cosmonigologist teacher of the main set of characters at the beginning of the story, truly believes that everything that happens in the world is for the best, and that terrible injustices that so often occur are to be taken lightly, as they will resolve on their own accord in the face of hope and optimism. Then, laughingly cruelly, Candide is expelled from the castle he grew up in, is forced into conscription for a German army, mercilessly flogged, and witnesses a terribly bloody battle. Later, even Pangloss is hanged as a heretic in Lisbon, truly exemplifying the hilarity of the best of all possible worlds.By the end of the novel, Panglosss ideologies have been wholly cast aside in favor of a more down-to-earth way of life, literally. He begins to cultivate a farm with Lady Cunegonde, whom hed married. Finally, after learning to distract oneself from the vices and nasty side of life, Candide and those around him are happy and satisfied.