Symbolism In Candide

Coming to terms with death and dying is perhaps the most difficult human struggle. In addition to facing our own impermanence, we are also permanent to accept the mortality of those we love. In The Adventures of the Black Girl in Search for God, Rainy mourns the death of her young daughter while also being confronted with the terminal illness of her father. In sharp contrast to Rainey’s difficulty in dealing with his reality is Abendigo’s calm acceptance of coming to the ends of his life (Taitt).

Candide is the illegitimate nephew of a German baron. He grows up in the baron’s castle under the tutelage of the scholar Pangloss, who teaches him that this world is “the best of all possible worlds.” Candide falls in love with the baron’s young

daughter, Cunégonde. The baron catches the two kissing and expels Candide from his home. On his own for the first time, Candide is soon conscripted into the army of the Bulgars. He wanders away from camp for a brief walk, and is brutally flogged as a deserter. After witnessing a horrific battle, he manages to escape and travels to Holland (“Candide Spark notes”).
Devices used Voltaire’s Candide are symbolism, imagery, metaphor, allegory, setting, resurrection, rape and sexual exploitation, political and religious oppression, genre, trivia and allusion.

The author used symbolism when the uncle banished him from the family country home and garden after he finds Candide kissing Cunegonde. He used resurrection when Candide believes that Cunégonde, Pangloss, and the baron are dead. The author used political and religious oppression when Candide was full of uncommonly graphic accounts of the sexual exploitation of women. He also used genre to make the crown roll on the floor with laughter. He also used the device trivia to describe Voltaire’s controversial

book.
Devices used in The Adventure of the Black Girl in Her search for god are protagonist, synopsis, allegory, dramatic, religion, metaphor, metaphysics, and materialism.

The protagonists in the story was “Black Girl”. Synopsis was used when Black Girl becomes dissatisfied with the inconsistencies.

In the both stories Voltaire’s Candide and The Adventure of the Black Girl in her Search for God both used protagonists, metaphor, simile, personification. Both stories had a character the story revolves around. The both stories had metaphor which contrasted to unalike things to enhance the meaning or a situation. They both used simile which enhanced the meaning of a situation using like or as. Personification were also used in the both stories to give non-human objects human characteristics.

The background in The Adventure of the Black Girl in Her Search for God takes place in the present time, in Negro Creek in Holland Township Ontario. African settlers fought in the war in 1812 were the ancestors of many of the town’s modern day inhabitants. The soldiers consisted of escaping slaves and black men. The name Negro Creek was given to those black men who fought the war and settled by African Canadians. In 1995 the White townsfolks tried to change the name of Negro Creek Road to Moggie Road, after Caucasian

settlers.
Voltaire’s Candide begins in the German town of Westphalia, where Candide a young man lives in the castle of Baron of Thunder-ten-tronche. A noted philosopher, Doctor, Pangloss, tutors the Baron of philosophical Optimism. Candide is a young man who travels the world and experience all joy and horrors. Candide was a satire of the then-prevalent philosophical optimism advanced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
The main character in the story in The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search for God are Rainey Baldwin-Johnson he was a doctor. The second main character is Abendigo Johnson he is an aging retired judge, Rainey's father and Michael's father-in-law. He has for decades been in love with Ivy, despite having married her sister Martha. The third Ivy is a member of Abendigo's group, and his former sister-in-law. Abendigo is in love with her and considers her the love of his life. Michael Baldwin is a local pastor, married to but separated from Rainey.
The supporting character are Darese she was a member of Abendigo's group. She is very frugal and an avid comparison shopper. Girlene is member of Abendigo's group. She has repeatedly divorced and remarried the same man. Bert is a member of Abendigo's group. On missions, he chooses to answer only to specific code names. The guard works at the museum where the final phase of Abendigo's crusade takes place.
Dr. Radcliffe was Abendigo's physician. Chorus represents the ancestors of Negro Creek and serves as the production's “living set”. They embody the play's settings through the use of physical movement. Martha (referenced only) Abendigo's former wife and Rainey's former stepmother, who raised Rainey as her own. Ivy's sister is already deceased at the start of the play.
In Voltaire’s Candide the main characters are Candide, Pangloss, Martin and Cacambo. Candide is the protagonist of the novel, but he is bland, naïve, and highly susceptible to the influence of stronger characters. Like the other characters, Candide is less a realistic individual than the embodiment of a particular idea or folly that Voltaire wishes to illustrate. Pangloss is Candide’s mentor and a philosopher, Pangloss is responsible for the novel’s most famous idea: that all is for the best in this “best of all possible worlds.” This optimistic sentiment is the main target of Voltaire’s satire. Pangloss’s philosophy parodies the ideas of the Enlightenment thinker G. W. von Leibniz. Leibniz maintains that an all-good, all-powerful God had created the world and that, therefore, the world must be perfect. Martin acts as both foil and counterpart to Pangloss (“Candide Spark notes”).
The composition of Voltaire’s ‘Candide’ is a picaresque narrative. Voltaire recounts a tale of an adventure hero. He uses many characters to build the story such as Candide; the optimist, Pangloss; the philosopher and Cunégonde; the object of Candides’ desire. Voltaire creates the characters as two-dimensional and impractical. Candide is over optimistic and no matter what gets thrown at him, it doesn’t affect his buoyancy. This is clearly shown throughout the story. When Candide sees a beggar on the street and finds out that it is his mentor Pangloss, he doesn’t walk away and leave him, instead he asks the Anabaptist James to pay for the treatment to cure Pangloss(
He is more believable than the other major characters in the novel, not because he is more complex, but because he is more intelligent and more likely to draw conclusions with which we can identify. A scholar who has suffered personal and financial setbacks, Martin is as extreme a pessimist as Pangloss is an optimist. He even takes issue with Candide’s statement that “there is some good” in the world. Cacambo sheds a subtle and interesting light on the philosophical themes of the novel. Unlike any other character in the novel, he inspires perfect confidence, both in his intelligence and his moral uprightness. He knows both Native American and European languages, and deals capably with both the Jesuits and the Biglugs. He suffers fewer gross misfortunes than any other character, less out of luck than because of his sharp wits, and he lives up to Candide’s trust when Candide sends him to fetch Cunegonde.
In Voltaire’s Candide, Candide is the protagonist of the story. The play takes place in a various real and fictional locations in Europe and South America. The tone of the play is past and present. Candide is known for being hilarious. His name means innocent. Candide is very innocent. He is simple and he trusts everyone. He is assumed to be the son of the Baron’s sister. He loves Cunegonde but is not bold enough to confess. He is very gentle. He listens to Pangloss’s talk and initially believes what says although he does not really understand his high flown talk (“The best notes).
Candide is very much attracted to Cunegonde who is very beautiful. From the beginning of the novel to the end, he yearns for her and his only aim is to achieve her. He is seen in a romantic position with her. This makes the Baron very angry and he throws him out of the castle. From the time he is made to leave the castle till the end of the novel, he goes through various adventures. He gradually matures from an innocent boy to an experienced and practical man (“The best notes”).
The composition of Voltaire’s ‘Candide’ is a picaresque narrative. Voltaire recounts a tale of an adventure hero. He uses many characters to build the story such as Candide; the optimist, Pangloss; the philosopher and Cunégonde; the object of Candides’ desire. Voltaire creates the characters as two-dimensional and impractical. Candide is over optimistic and no matter what gets thrown at him, it doesn’t affect his buoyancy. This is clearly shown throughout the story. When Candide sees a beggar on the street and finds out that it is his mentor Pangloss, he doesn’t walk away and leave him, instead he asks the Anabaptist James to pay for the treatment to cure Pangloss.

A technique used often in ‘Candide’ by the author is using characters to speak his personal opinion on certain subjects. He uses Pangloss to ridicule philosophical naivety. An example of this is when Pangloss asks a man whether he thinks everything is for the best, the man replies “I believe nothing of the sort. I find that everything goes wrong in our world”. He goes onto describe how “nobody knows his place in society” and that “outside of mealtimes...the rest of the day is spent in useless quarrels”.
Another affective narrative technique Voltaire uses is to insert actual events into the story, e.g. “At Portsmouth the shore was crowded with people eagerly watching a big man who was kneeling on the deck...”. Here Voltaire is writing about Admiral Byng, who was executed on the fourteenth of March 1757. Another example of this and also of how he uses the characters to voice his opinions is when he writes about the Abbé and the Parisian Guests have supper. The Abbé mentions a ‘Fréron’ calling him a “hack journalist”. He also says “He is one of those literary vipers who feed on dirt and venom.