Sunday, November 27, 2011

In Candide, what did Martin mean by saying, "There is something deeply broken in the world"? Which chapter can this statement be found in?

This statement (or some variation thereof, depending on which translation you are reading) can be found in chapter 20 of Candide. Throughout the interactions between Candide and Martin in part 1 of the book, the stark difference between viewpoints about the world held by Martin and by Candide are highlighted. While Candide holds an overwhelmingly positive view of the world and its people, Martin holds an exceedingly negative view of people and society. In this way, these two characters act as dramatic foils, or opposites meant to highlight differences in character, to one another.
In this statement by Martin, he indicates that he thinks there indeed is something in the world that is deeply flawed. He then gives numerous examples that to him show that the world is broken.
Martin says that he thinks the devil, or evil, seems to him to be everywhere in the world, even in himself. He indicates that he thinks that God, and the good that comes with God, in his belief, has abandoned the world and given it up to evil. His examples include his belief that all cities wish the destruction of a neighboring city and that families all wish the world were rid of some other family that is their enemy.
He says that everywhere in the world, rich and poor people detest each other, with the poor afraid of the rich and the rich treating the poor badly. He says that through wars, the people in countries of Europe steal their riches from other countries. He even says that in seemingly peaceful places, people are greedy and envy one another. He concludes by saying that he is a Manichean. This means that to him, the world is a battlefield full of conflict between good and evil. And to Martin, evil is clearly winning.
In reply to this, Candide says that, to him, even though these problems exist, there is still good in the world; Martin says that may be true, but that he has not seen the good in the world about which Candide speaks. Through this interaction between Candide and Martin, we can see how Candide sees the world as mostly full of good while Martin sees it as mostly full of evil and negativity.

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