Candide

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Voltaire, the author of Candide, is regarded today as one of the most famous figures of the European Enlightenment. What was the Enlightenment? Consider what you know about the philosophy, literature, and history of this period. What are some of the main ideas you associate with the Enlightenment?

Teaching Suggestion: The Enlightenment refers to an intellectual movement in Europe during the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Introduce the class to the main preoccupations of the Enlightenment (e.g., reason and science, human happiness, liberty, progress, etc.) as well as to some of the leading Enlightenment figures (e.g., John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and, of course, Voltaire).

• This short video from Crash Course provides a student-facing overview of the key characteristics of the Enlightenment.
• This article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, though accessible, provides a thorough, instructor-facing overview of the Enlightenment

2. Candide is usually classified as a work of satire. What is satire? What are the basic characteristics of satire? Are there different types of satire? Do you associate satire with any particular historical periods or literary genres?

Teaching Suggestion: Satir, a form of entertainment that goes back to antiquity, involves critique and/or ridicule of society and/or the powers that govern it. You can discuss the history of satire as it developed from ancient Rome to the modern day, the three types of satire (Horatian, Juvenalian, and Menippean), and some famous examples of satire from different periods (e.g., the comedies of Aristophanes, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, George Orwell’s Animal Farm, or even modern television shows such as South Park or Saturday Night Live).

• This video from studiobinder.com discusses the history and types of satire.
• This teaching resource from Engaging and Effective Teaching provides links to three “clean” SNL clips that help illustrate satire.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Why do human beings suffer? What kind of pain, unhappiness, and general unpleasantness have you encountered and/or experienced in your life? Consider your own experiences but also those of others that you have heard about. How can humans find happiness despite suffering? What, in your opinion, does the prevalence of suffering reveal about the nature and/or meaning of life?

Teaching Suggestion: Encourage students to draw on their own experiences but also on their knowledge of history and philosophy as they approach this question. At the same time, students should not feel that they need to give support for an earlier philosophical answer to these questions; Instead, urge students to explore and formulate their own opinions on the meaning of suffering and human life.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who would benefit from assistance with abstract thinking, it might be useful to set frames or context for students to answer this question in a classroom discussion. For example, students might benefit from thinking about suffering and happiness on a more concrete level: what makes a person happy or unhappy? What are some specific examples of things that cause humans to suffer? Alternatively, students could enter the discussion by first defining happiness, then defining suffering, followed by a discussion of categorizing teacher-selected current events, or other concrete topics. Graphic organizers, such as a Venn diagram or T-chart, might also be useful for a more visual approach.