Essay on Voltaire’s Candide: Use of Language -- Candide essays

Use of Language in Candide A smashing philosopher Liebnitz one time said that this is the best possible of all worlds. Voltaire disagrees. In Voltaires Candide, the impartial bank clerk travels to distant lands and experiences a range of extremes. After having spent a great deal of time away from his homeland, and having check offn more than most people see in a lifetime, the narrator is forced to conclude that this may not be the best possible world because of the candor of evil. Voltaire relates this point precise effectively through his mastery of language and the choices he makes, both gramatically and content-related. In one particular passage, Voltaire uses explicit expression, exaggerated details and manipulated syntax in order to contrast the optimists romantic view of battle with the horrible reality that is war. Voltaires grossly exaggerated details give a somewhat crotchety description of an otherwise horrible event. The cannons battered down about half-do zen gravitational constant men, and then the musket-fire removed...about nine or ten thousand and finally, the bayonet kil... ...g his lifetime, Voltaire awakened people through his writing. He masterfully chose his diction and details to show the contrast between the ridiculous ideas of the optimist and the truth that and the realist could see. His choice of syntax leaves the reader with unforgettable images of war that will admit a lasting effect. Through his clever satire, Voltaire urges the reader to be more practical rather than happily ignorant. Work Cited Voltaire. Candide. Trans. Bair, Lowell. New York Bantam Books, 1988.