try. Eldorado, a place that is "impossible" to find, has no laws, jails, war, or need for material goods. Voltaire uses Eldorado as an epitome of the "best of all possible worlds." It contrasts the real outside world in which war and suffering are everyday occurrences. Another example of how Voltaire ridicules Pangloss' optimistic philosophy is the mention of the Lisbon earthquake and fire. Even though the disastrous earthquake took over 30,000 lives, Pangloss still upheld his philosophical optimism by stating, "For all this is for the very best...For it is impossible that things should not be where they are." The disaster in Lisbon affected Voltaire's life so much that he wrote the Poem on the Lisbon Disaster, but Pangloss' philosophy said that the Lisbon earthquake was necessary in the course of nature, and there was definitely a rationale for the situation.War is another evil, which Voltaire satirizes in Candide. Voltaire used the Bulgarians and their brutality as a basis for his satire on war. Voltaire writes how Candide was captured by the Bulgarians and is given a choice "to be beaten thirty-six times by thewhole regiment, or receive twelve lead bullets at once in his brain" Being the "hero" he is, Candide chooses to run the gauntlet. Instead of the thirty-six times he was to run the gauntlet, our "hero" made it only two until he pleaded to the Bulgarians to smash in his head. Another satire of war included in Candide is the Bulgarians' burning of the Abarian village "in accordance with the rules of international law." Voltaire also shows his satire on war in that the Bulgarian soldiers do not just kill other people, they rape disembowel, and dismember innocent women and children. In fact, Candide's training as a soldier involved being brutalized and beaten. Voltaire uses this example to demonstrate the inhuman vulgarity of many belligerent groups. He thought that this torture was cruel and unjustified. If this were ...
