Assignment task:
Remember, you may use these prompts, alter them according to your own interests, or write about a different but relevant topic concerning the text altogether. These are prompts for the Discussion Board; please do not confuse them with essay prompts.
Prompt 1: I mentioned in the lecture notes that one object of Voltaire's satire is the philosophy of optimism. There are many, many other targets, and the aim is often brilliant. Voltaire can be called, without question, an "iconoclast." (Good vocabulary word: an iconoclast is, literally, a person who smashes icons. But we use the word to refer to anybody who attacks a thing, idea, or institution people revere.) Identify one or two objects of Voltaire's iconoclasm and discuss what Voltaire does to make his satire successful.
Prompt 2: A "Utopia," of course, is a perfect society. And there is a Utopia in Candide: Eldorado. Does it, in fact, strike you as a Utopia? If so, why does Candide leave it?
Prompt 3: Another question about optimism: clearly, Voltaire satirizes it. But is his satire unrelieved? Is there a way we might think of the book as being, in its own way, optimistic? Or is it pretty unrelentingly dark?
Prompt 4: At the very end of the book, Candide says, "we must cultivate our garden." What exactly does he mean by that? And (a related question, I think) What do we think Voltaire calling for? That people should retreat from society? Or that they should more actively engage in it?