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Volaire Candide

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Running Head: VOLTAIRE’S CANDIDE

VOLTAIRE’S CANDIDE

Trey Miller

Professor Renee A. Pleasant

HUM 112

January 15, 2015

VOLTAIRE’S CANDIDE
The story that I decided to read was Voltaire’s Candide and it was very interesting. Voltaire’s Candide had a few surprises in the story that I did not expect before beginning to read. One of the surprise endings was that the scholars from a university could conclude human sacrifices in order to prevent future earthquakes. During those times there were a lot of strange laws and customs such as not eating bacon. Not eating bacon was cause for suspicion. In the story, there were two Portuguese citizens taken because they did not eat bacon. The characters, Dr. Pangloss was taken for being out spoken and Candide was taken for being Pangloss’ friend. The two Portuguese citizens along with another citizen were burned alive, while Dr. Pangloss was hung and Candide was flogged. All part of this ritual sacrificial ceremony was to prevent future earthquakes. Unfortunately, the ritual did not stop anything. On the day of the ceremony there was yet another earthquake, which implied the rituals did not work. The earthquake seemed to be more devastating than the first one and the only one to survive the ordeal was Candide. The biggest surprise would come later in the next chapter when Candide and Dr. Pangloss was able to reunite.
It turns out in the story that Dr. Pangloss did not die from hanging. He was able to live and had a story to tell. Dr. Pangloss was to be burnt along with others, but heavy rain stopped them from starting a fire. He was to be hung, but the hangman did not know how to properly tie a noose. Since the rope was so wet it did not close around Dr. Pangloss’ neck and he was able to survive. Only to be sold to a surgeon that would bring his body home to dissect it. Dr. Pangloss went on to tell

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