Candide's Argumentative Analysis

The natural state of human is not war. It is crucial to understand that the environment is the one that triggers the murderous state in humans. As years passed by and society progressed, the act of murder and violence has significantly decreased. The article argues that a combination of the mind and evolution tend to have a profound effect on how violence is impacted in society. Similarly, Candide relates to the point of the argument because of how inevitable and easy violence and murder forms in the novel. There were many instances where a large attack by burglars and mobs that simply wanted to cause misery to Candide and Cunegonde. The article correlates the way the capacity of murder tends to thrive in a man to the instances of mass murder committed in Candide. The article mentions the thought process of evolutionary psychologists to demonstrate the justification of murderous actions in the

“Men are not just more likely to kill other people than women are, they are also more likely to do so in groups — and for some researchers it is in these realms that killing offers real evolutionary value.” In Candide, the example of the burglars being a male group dedicated to going to the wealthy to kill and rob them of money justifies the claim of the male dominant murderers in evolution. Conflict is always derived from two sides of a situation. In this case, the struggle between the upper and lower classes in relation to their wealth and status had came into question. The formation of the burglars was derived from the stimulation of the orbitofrontal cortex. As a result, they feel anger and hatred towards this societal conflict and begin to think violently. This violent thinking leads to a unification towards the idea of murder to the group. Eventually, the benefit outweighs the cost in their minds, and they set out to