For the best? Candid 4-9

After chapter three of Candide, we see a change of attitudes towards the wolrd the charcaters live in. In chapter four, Candide meets a beggar riddled with small pox. This wretched being turns out to be his former tutor, Dr. Pangloss. Candide is horrified at this turn of events and asks about his love, Lady Cunégonde. Pangloss tells him she was raped and killed by Bulgar soldiers who attacked his former home. Candide is grief-stricken at these news, but he knows he must cure Pangloss. He asks James, the Anabaptist for help and his benefactor fervently aids Pangloss. For this, Pangloss becomes his accountant.
At this point, Candide’s perspective of the world begins to change. Two views collide: Dr. Pangloss’ optimistic view of how everything is done for the best and Candide’s bitter real world experiences which prove the “best of the best” is not necessarily true for his world. The reader begins to hope Candide will realize the truth about humankind, about its flaws and mistakes, but the reentry of Dr. Pangloss in such a crucial time slows this whole process down. Pangloss comes and from his new dreaded existence continues to preach optimism.

"Not at all," replied the great man, "it was a thing unavoidable, a necessary
ingredient in the best of worlds; for if Columbus had not caught in an island in
America this disease, which contaminates the source of generation, and
frequently impedes propagation itself, and is evidently opposed to the great end
of nature, we should have had neither chocolate nor cochineal. (pg 30)

When I read this I truly laughed. Pangloss actually says that such a terrible thing as small pox is the best outcome of events because it gave Europe Chocolate and Cochineal. Besides finding this completely ridiculous, it is of the outmost selfishness to see such a disease as a good thing. One might say that Pangloss is selfless because even in his own disease he finds the good for society; however, his actions make it feel that he simply has come to believe only in his theory and that is why he must find the good in everything. This reminded me of occasions when I had to defend a position I disagreed with, I agreed with my attackers but the fact that they were attacking what I had to defend made me fight back and, on occasions, begin to believe what I didn’t believe before. Could Pangloss be in this dilemma? Besides these, the ridiculous defense of Small Pox is an evident tool that Voltaire used to mock optimism of his time.
During the boat trip to Lisbon, we find the first explicit attack on optimism by James the Anabaptist. “Men,’ he said, ‘must have somewhat altered the course of nature; for they were not born wolves, yet they have become wolves. (pg 31)” This stated that men have created war and weapons to kill each other and laws to force the poor to pay the rich, which is entirely against the “best of the best” thought. Pangloss then argues that this is true, but the “best of the best” thought is not individual, but collective so the more misfortunes an individual has, the more it somehow aids others. This argument was clearly used by Voltaire to mock and discredit other thinkers of the time who believed in the common good and not on the progress of the individual. With this idea, he also mixes religion. James the Anabaptist, a non-catholic, is the one who saves Candide from the terrible Catholic priests and is who fights Pangloss’ theories. Voltaire does this to attack the Catholic Church and its terrible power, far outdated and overgrown with corruption. Voltaire places James, the non-Christian, enlightened benefactor against Pangloss, the close-minded, pro-Christian conservative in an ideological combat which is clearly biased. We see Dr. Pangloss as ridiculous, while we see James as the very best of humankind. This is very clear after James drowns after he saved a sailor, “He wanted to throw himself into the sea after the Anabaptist, but the great philosopher, Pangloss, stopped him by proving that Lisbon harbor was made on purpose for this Anabaptist to drown there. (pg 33)” Voltaire purposely refers to James the hero as “the Anabaptist” while he refers to Pangloss, the man who stopped James from being saved, as “the great philosopher” and mocks the way he proved Lisbon harbor was made for James to drown there.
After many hardships such as earthquakes, floggings and the death of Pangloss, Candide finally pops his ideological bubble:

"If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others? If I had only
been whipped, I could have put up with it, as I did among the Bulgarians; but,
not withstanding, oh my dear Pangloss! my beloved master! thou greatest of
philosophers! that ever I should live to see thee hanged, without knowing for
what! O my dear Anabaptist, thou best of men, that it should be thy fate to be
drowned in the very harbor! O Miss Cunegund, you mirror of young ladies! that it
should be your fate to have your body ripped open! (pg 37)"

Candide realized the world was not how he had viewed it all his life, humans are not perfect and events are not always for the best. We have now seen how Voltaire places an innocent young man in the real world and turns him from a ridiculous view of life to reality, entirely discrediting optimists such as Pangloss.
At the end of chapter nine, Candide ends up killing his love’s owners. He is now wanted, as well as Lady Cunégund and just a few weeks earlier he would have never thought of murder. Here, Voltaire exemplifies his ideas. If everything is for the best, how could Candide end up killing the Grand Inquisitor “for the best of results” if that same Inquisitor was also allegedly living “for the best results”? Every human forges his own fate, like the corrupt Inquisitor or the murdering Candide. There is no best result, the only thing that matters is what occurred whether it was the best thing or not.