Candide or Optism, Voltaire essays

Candide or Optism, Voltaire essays War can be one of the most devastating occurrences on earth. It is war that destroys the lives of many people, families, and countries. Whats done to one person can ruin the lives of many others. This is expressed in the book Candide or Optimism. In this book Candide is torn from his love, Cunegonde, and looks for her for the rest of his life. He believed that she was killed in a war. Voltaire expresses many of his thoughts in this book through Candide. He does not believe in war and he outlines some of the effects of it in this book. Wars many sounds can be very frightening and loud. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, cannons, formed a harmony such as has never been heard even in hell (Voltaire 7). I think that Voltaire is trying to express the sounds of war and how horrifying they are. He makes a connection here between war and hell, which shows he believes war is a horrible thing. I feel he is right; war can be a disaster in many cases and hearing one would be horrible. Voltaire also expresses his feelings through Candide in many instances. Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery (7). I think that Voltaire is showing how feels against war. He doesnt want any part of it. He also refers to it as a heroic butchery. I believe that here he wants to give the idea that this war is like a murder, with the armies involved in it just killing for the sake of being heroes. I agree with him here. Many wars were fought just to show how much of a hero a person is able to be. I think that if a battle has to take place, there has got to be a good reason for it. There should never be a battle if it can be avoided in some way. At last, while the two Kings each commanded a Te Deum in his camp, Candide decided to go elsewhere to reason about effects and causes (7). I thin ...