For Better or for Worse

Candide has grown up his entire life being told that everything happens for a reason in this best possible of all worlds. To be completely honest I find that there is some truth to this statement, at least in my own opinion. However, there is one major difference that sets my belief aside from Candide’s and his tutor Pangloss’s. I believe that everything happens for a reason, but that not all those reasons are for the best. The human life is filled with actions and consequences. While the word “consequence” usually carries a negative connotation with it, I use it in this case simply to describe a result that has occurred from a previous action. The novel Candide is a series of actions and consequences. Candide does a series of questionable actions, like killing a man or two (or really three), and each of these actions are met with some sort of result. The most common consequence is that Candide is forced to run around the entire world away from someone or something. It’s an important lesson in anyone’s life: if you kill a man, you will be chased down. Or if we are looking at the overall picture here: If you do something wrong, there will be repercussions. Pangloss always told Candide that everything that happens has a positive side to it. While this would be a nice philosophy in an entirely utopian society, I can’t seem to entirely wrap my head around it. Yes, things happen for a reason, but sometimes they happen for the worse, not the better.