The Influences of Candide’s Development The story Candide or Optimism, written in 1759 by Francois Marie Arouet De Voltaire, is about a young man who experiences many misfortunes and who is exceptionally naïve. His development throughout his journey in life is contributed and influenced by the people he comes in contact with. In the story, Candide has the opportunity to experience many different views on philosophical optimism by meeting different people who have all suffered from different experiences and misfortunes. Some of these people, such as Pangloss, Cacambo, and Martin are individuals who had a major impact on Candide’s development and perspective of life. Candide is a good-hearted but an extremely naïve young man. His mentor …show more content…

The time Candide spent with Cacambo during his journey was a positive influence on the young man. Even though Candide did not have the analytical skills as Cacambo, he shows growth in self-sufficient decisions by the influences of Cacambo. The last and final character that had an influence on Candide’s development was a scholar named Martin. Martin is the third of Candide’s companions and advisers. His beliefs are completely opposite of those of Pangloss. Martin, just like the others has also suffered from a series of calamities. Identical to Cacambo, Martin is more intelligent than Candide and Pangloss. He is a more realistic character because he is scholarly and more likely to draw reasonable conclusions.
In a conversation between Martin and Candide, Martin tells him “I find that everything goes wrong in our world” (561). He has difficulty seeing the world as it actually is and one can conclude that Martin constantly expects nothing but the worst to happen. He teaches Candide to see that the world is full of bad and evil just like Cacambo did. He also shows him the world is not all well as he once believed from listening to the philosophy of Pangloss.
The conclusion of Candide would not be possible without the many changes that had taken place within Candide. During one point in the story