Paul+and+Brian


 * 1. What are the three biggest targets of Voltaire's satire in these pages? Discuss, and give evidence by quoting exact passages. (Paul)**

First, Voltaire criticizes Pangloss' idea of optimism by making Cunegonde think she was deceived by Pangloss. "Pangloss deceived me cruelly, after all, when he told me that all is for the best in this world."(pg21) Voltaire is opposed to optimism. After all the tragedies Cunegonde has experienced, she doesn't believe in optimism anymore.

Also Candide, who admires his teacher deeply and therefore believes in optimism, starts to doubt Pangloss' idea. "If this holy man calls for help, he will have me burned at the stake without fail; he will probably do the same for Cunegonde; he has already had me mercilessly whipped; he is now my rival; I am already embarked on killing; there is no choice."(pg22) Candide here thinks he's doomed, and he has no choice. You can say this is contradicting to what he believes. So basically, Voltaire is mocking foolishness of optimism.

What Voltaire most 'disses' about, however, is discrimination of women. As you can see from Cunegonde's story, she was raped, stabbed, and sold as if she is a pig or something. In this part, Voltaire is criticizing both weakness of women at that time, and men's way of treating women.


 * 2. Does Swift, in //Gulliver's Travels,// attack any of the targets you identified in question 1? Find passages from Swift's book as evidence. Then write a paragraph for each one, and discuss the similarities and/or differences.**

I don't really remember Swift dissing optimism. However, there sure are a lot of criticism of religious people in //Gulliver's Travels.// In Lilliput, they fight with their rival country because the rival country has opposite opinion about whether you should crack an egg from the pointy part or the bottom. This is showing how ridiculous thing religious people fight over and creat wars. This is kind of different with Voltaire's criticism to Pope but it still is similar in that they both are criticizing the religious people.


 * 3. Write from each of the starred roles in our literature circles, and discuss your section from each point of view.(Paul)**

> I also found a funny criticism. "Our men defended themselves as the Pope's soldiers usually do; they all fell to their knees, threw down their weapons, and begged the pirates to absolve them of their sins //in articulo mortis."// (pg26) If you see the notes //in articulo mortis// it means at the point of death. Only priests can give absolution, but soldiers are in despair so they are asking for absolutions of a Muslim pirate. Aren't soldiers of Pope thought to be like the most durable ones? These soldiers, who are supposed to act as a shield of 'god' (Pope), kneel to a group of pirates? It is a huge and funny criticism.
 * 1) ***New Critic (Identify key passages and discuss them)** :On chapter 11 where the old woman tells her story, Voltaire criticizes the Pope. When woman mentions about her identity, she says she's a daughter of Pope. "I am the daughter of Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina" (pg25) Popes were not supposed to have any sexual intercourse, and this rule must have existed back then when Voltaire was writing this story. This Pope did not only have intercourse, but he actually married to a princess. This is criticism of contradiction and hypocrisy of Pope and religion at that time.
 * 1) ***Character Analyst (What does the author make us think about the characters as we know them more in each chapter?)**: Voltaire makes the readers think of how vulnerable Cunegonde is and what tragedies she suffered through and how those events affected her idea of optimism. Cunegonde first believed in optimism, although she didn't directly get educated by Pangloss, but she says that Pangloss' idea was wrong after all. She's a dynamic character. Candide is also a dynamic character since he also starts to doubt Pangloss' idea; optimism.
 * 2) ***Psychological Critic (Analyze what the writer shows about how the human mind—male/female, young/old, Eastern/Western, rich/poor—works; you can analyze the author as well as the characters)** As I've already stated on number 1, he's criticizing men's power over women. I also think that when Pope's soldiers kneeled to Muslim pirates, it is well shown that Voltaire has something bad to say about Christians. I think it is whether Chatholic is inferior to Muslim, or maybe French people thought Muslims to be filthy, so Voltaire made France look bad by making the soldiers kneel to Muslims.
 * 3) ***Historian (Information and inferences about history; how the book is a “mirror” of its time)** Aforementioned paragraphs in question number one and two explain this role. Voltaire, in this chapter, criticizes the discrimination between man and woman and also the pope at that time. In Cunegonde's story, all the evils who rape or hurt or kill people are men. Also you can notice how Cunegonde was sold to men as if she was a livestock. These show men's power over women, and Voltaire's criticizing it indirectly. His next target is the Pope, whom he makes fun of by saying that the old woman is his daughter. Obviously, it is a mirror of its time because it is showing the flaw of gender and religion at that time. However, it can still work as mirror of nowadays, since women are raped and sold (I mean the prostitution).
 * 4) ***Anthropologist (Information and Inferences about culture: the writer's own culture, and that of any other lands. Why does the writer choose to create these things? What meanings is he trying to make for us readers?)** The Pope soldiers who guarded the old woman and other women interact with Muslim pirates. These soldiers are French and they kneeled to Muslim pirates. I think Voltaire wanted to mock the hypocrites of France. Not only soldiers, but people in high status like Pope. Also, according to Cunegonde and the old woman, they were once in 1st rank of society, but as you can see they get raped and damaged and destroyed. This shows Voltaire's anger to flaws of French royal families and religiously high ranked people.
 * 5) ***Philosopher King (What are the themes/big ideas?)** If you look at the whole frame of this chapter from the outside of the book, he's basically mocking the flaws of French, and optimism. I don't mean that Voltaire's a pessimist, but he is disagrees with optimism. Also, he's mocking tons of things of France (and may be other countries), such as men's "superiority," pope and royal family's hypocrisy and religion.
 * 6) **Feminist (What is stated/implied about the role of women? This is not mandatory, but it will become interesting later. Feel free to notice and discuss.):** Mostly this chapter is about role of women. I mean, not exactly 'role' but 'status.' Here, women are treated like sex toy or something. They are raped, and sold when the men doesn't want sexual relationship anymore. To make things worse, they are killed, disembowelled, wripped into tiny pieces; hopefully, not grinded into little meatballs..... SO in this chapter, Voltaire's mostly criticizing the society that puts down females.
 * 7) **Devil’s Advocate (Identify and attack weaknesses you can find in Voltaire’s writing and storytelling. It’s not easy.):** I enjoyed this book, and I think Voltaire is an excellent critique&writer as much as Jonathan Swift. However, the main criticism in my assigned chapters were women's sufferings at that time, but I think it is too exaggerated. The tragedies Cunegonde and the old woman suffer are so unrealistic. What kind of a cursed person would get raped, lose all their family, get disembowelled, observe close people getting wripped and so on? This could not happen in the reality. He could've emphasized that it was 'men' who's screwing womens life more, than what kind of tragedies women suffered.