Take life by the Horns

Throughout Candide I find the story packed full of people making the most of their situations. At the beginning you got more of a pitty party from Candie and others but as the story sails along you see more of a take charge and direct my own fate senairio. In modern day terms it is doing the best with what you have. It is being the best that you can be. Sometimes that action takes fine tuning of your surroundings, your situations. To be succesful, and in many cases for surrival, you must try to improve on what life has dealt you. My Grandmother Hicks would tell me you must take life by the horns and guide it as much as you can in the direction you would want it to go. You must cultivate your garden, and adjust what is bad in life or weed it out completely. Build on the good, eliminate the bad and you will become a better man, she would say. This was what Voltaire was trying to get across in his story. Remember at the beginning of Candide how optimistic he remained. He thought no matter what happened in life things always would turn out for the best. As hardships in his life grew he became more of a thinker and experienced the need to be more of a realist. He realized his actions did have a result in the way things turned out in his life. The bottom line is that responsibilitys in life lies within ourselves and we do have the power to make our lives better, if we chose. Any normal man could not have faced the dissapointment, the dispare, time and time again without feeling like giving up. It was hope that keep Candide going not optimisim. The hope of finding Cunegonde,the hope of one day controlling his on destiny. Martin would remind Candide that it is always good to have hope. Candide who first believed the optimisim approach began to look at life through hope. Upon hearing Candide crying out to Pangless telling him he is through with his optimistic attitude or believe in life, "I must give up your optimism after all"(Voltaire552). Cacambo then ask Candide what is optimism in which Candide replied,"it is mania for saying things are well when one is in hell"(Voltaire552). In the conclusion the story was brought together just like you would bring together a garden. Their lives had been cultivated, so they could grow and flourish. The characters began taking on lifes responsibilitys. They took charge of their on destiny, they became realistic, became useful and lost for the most part optimisim. Fine crops for life sprouted and grew. Cunegonde became an excellent pastry cook. Paquette did embrordery, the old women did laundry and Brother Firoflee became an honest man and also was a good carpenter. Pangloss was still trying to pitch his optimistic approach and gave Candide a speech on why things were linked together. Candide replied,"That is very well put, but we must cultivate our garden"(Voltaire580). He was saying use what God has given you and put forth an effort to better yourself and don't wait for good to come to you. Grab the bull (life) by the horns.