Candide
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Enlightenment is termed as the eighteenth-century movement led by the philosphes that held that change and reform were both desirable through the application of reason and science. The writers of the Enlightenment, known as philosphes, charted a major new path in modern European and Western thought. Voltaire operated through a print culture that made public opinion into a distinct cultural force.
The main character of the novel, Candide, is set a drift in a hostile world and futilely tries to hold on to his optimistic belief that this is the "best of all possible worlds" as his tutor, Dr Pangloss keeps insisting. He travels through Europe, South America, and the Middle East, and on the way he encounters terrible natural disasters and witnesses all sort of evils perpetrated by human beings on their fellow human beings. Everyone he encounters seems to have had a worse experience than he has.
All the characters we encounter in Candide are tired of the oppression and strive brought about by the "Old Regime" and they use reason to try and understand their world. Even though people were changing and the society in general, political, and religious institutions were not keeping pace with the change. Candide is filled with indignation against religious extremism and political injustice and hopeful that the New World to come will be free of senseless injustices by the political and religious powers. Candide strongly abides by the teachings of his teacher and philosopher Dr...