Personally, I think ‘Candide’ by Voltaire is a very interesting book. Voltaire criticizes Christianity, the lifestyle of the people and some of their beliefs. He displays his way of thinking through the stories of each chapter. Voltaire also presents a lot of rhetorical questions that make you reflect about your life. Those questions are introduced by the deep conversations the characters are having. An example of this is Candide and Martin, when they say :
“But then why” said Candide, “was the world formed?” ” To drive us mad.” said Martin.
In this book people go to extreme lengths to get what they want, especially if its money. There are a lot of examples of this is in chapter 22. One is when an abbé invites Candide to play cards with him and his friends only to trick him and steal a lot of money from him. In this chapter Candide also meets a marquise who seduces him only to steal his jewels from him. Voltaire also criticizes the church in this chapter when he talks about the abbé because he is suppose to be good and honest but he decided to trick and steal from an innocent man. The author is trying to demonstrate that the church and the people that work in the church aren’t as good as they seem and they use their power to take advantage of other people.
‘Candide’ by Voltaire is a very fascinating satirical book that criticizes how people used to act because of Christianity. The authors way of thinking is more similar to the opinions of modern people than the beliefs of the 18th century.