The Price of Chocolate / Women in Candide

I love chocolate. It is, without a doubt, one of my favorite foods. I probably spend more money on chocolate than I care to think about.  But what if the price I had to pay for chocolate was even greater? What If I had to expose an entire continent to an STD in order to taste chocolate again? This sounds ridiculous because it is definitely not an even trade. However, Pangloss seems to think the opposite in Candide. He says, “For if Columbus, on an island off the Americas, had not contracted this disease-which poisons the source of all procreation, and often even prevents procreation, contrary though this be to nature’s great plan-we would have neither chocolate nor cochineal (11). This is a perfect example of his optimistic, everything-happens-for-a-reason-mentality. He believes that for every bad thing that happens, something good will come out of it. Although this may have been true in the world of Candide, the good that did come out never balanced out the bad. Volatire consistently uses situations like these to poke at optimism. At the very end of Candide, after each of the characters have suffered innumerable tragedies, Pangloss reflects by saying  to Candide, “After all, had you not been expelled from a beautiful castle with great kicks to the behind for the love of Mademoiselle Cunegonde, and had you not been turned over to the Inquisition, and had you not roamed America on foot, and had you not run the Baron through with a fine thrust of your sword, and had you not lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you would not be sitting here now eating candied citron and pistachios” (94) Obviously the events that occurred in Candide’s life were too severe to be balanced out by candied citron and pistachios, unless he really really likes these foods, but Pangloss uses optimism to prove that everything happens for a reason.

On a different topic....We had a discussion about the role of women in Candide and how they are portrayed. We talked specifically about rape and how often it occurred throughout the novel. I read an article that my sister-in-law had posted on Facebook about the current debate over birth control and health care. I found some interesting parallels in the article to Candide, especially starting at the third paragraph. It is amazing the connections that can be drawn from a novel written in a different time and place to situations we are facing today.

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/23/147284717/the-nation-men-all-men-and-birth-control