In Candide by Voltaire, the main character travels from continent to continent in search of love and the meaning of life. During his travels, his optimism – learned from his omnipresent tutor, Pangloss – slowly crumbles. Candide experiences corruption and deception, particularly in the Church. Most importantly, Candide realizes that you have to cultivate your own life and leave nothing to chance. Through these lessons, Candide evolves from an innocent student to a wise young man. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay Born in Westphalia, Candide is the illegitimate son of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh's sister. He therefore received an education from the first philosopher of Westphalia: Pangloss. Pangloss' main philosophy is optimism. Whenever Pangloss is confronted with a bad experience from another character, he simply says that it's for the best. At one point, for example, he says: "[Syphilis] is indispensable in the best of all possible worlds... because if Columbus, during his visit to the West Indies, had not caught this disease... we would not 'we would have neither chocolate nor cochineal' (30). With the same optimism, Candide continues his journey. However, as he evolves as a character, he realizes that this is not how the world works. Even if optimism is enough to explain the world to a young and naive Candide, it becomes less and less convincing as the story progresses. Yet when he leaves, he is subjected to a devastating natural disaster, public humiliation, and the loss of the love of his life, among other hardships. In chapter 26, for example, Candide dines with six dethroned kings. As Candide hears the sad stories of the former leaders, he is forced to ask himself if, in fact, everything is going well. The final blow to Candide's optimism occurs at the end of the novel, when Pangloss and Candide visit the Dervish, supposedly the wisest man in all of Turkey. Pangloss tells the Dervish that "I was looking forward to a little discussion with you about cause and effect, the best of all possible worlds, the origin of evil, the nature of the soul and pre-established harmony" (142). At this, the Dervish slammed the door in their faces. The fact that the wisest of men misunderstands Pangloss's philosophy forces Candide to completely abandon optimism. this action symbolizes Candide's departure from optimism. The second lesson Candide learns is that organized religion is vain and corrupt. Voltaire presents the figures of the Church as selfish and organized religion as an imposture. For example, Voltaire describes the origin of Pangloss's sexually transmitted disease: “Paquette received this gift from a Franciscan scholar…” (30). Candide learns that Pangloss received the illness from a supposedly celibate monk. Thus, Candide is exposed to the deception of the Church. Besides the non-celibate monk, Candide encounters many other characters who denigrate the Church and organized religion in general. One of these characters is the Grand Inquisitor. He is introduced when he sentences Candide and Pangloss to a book burning, in which Candide is tortured and Pangloss is said to be hanged. Later, Candide knows him as Cunégonde's forced lover, who blackmails his Jewish owner into sharing her. When the Inquisitor enters and sees the dead Jew, Candide rushes to impale him. As the Grand Inquisitor, a very high-ranking official of the Church, the character is involved in blackmail, sexual promiscuity, and heartlessness. Another example of corruption.