Surprise!! You are at the Malcom Scott Oscar award program. You have gone out and purchased the best fashion for our red carpet, (on me of course). You have cleared your busy schedule for the weekend to take part in our exclusive ball and after party. You also have front row seats to the concert featuring Prince, Jay-z and Tim McGrath featuring Faith Hill. You arrive with one question in mind “Who will be this year Enlightenment Period Character of the Year. Maybe you have your own person in mind and maybe you don’t care you’re just waiting on the after party and the open bar. Wait no longer its time.

After all our readings about the Enlightenment Period and the characters, some I understood their actions while others I questioned. I‘ve decided to dedicate my entire blog to this one character. This one guy doing the whole reading if something could go wrong it did. Now a slight hint to thicken the tension “Isn’t the devil at the root of the whole thing” (please forgive me for improper citing, don’t want to give it away just yet). He’s also my pick for the million dollar prize on Survivor because he has survived several knife fights, a lynching, an earthquake, and even Boat wreck. Now if that’s not a tuff guy who is? This young man stayed optimistic even though his friends took sides their respected sides on the philosophy he had been taught all his life. “Pangloss still maintained that everything was for the best, but Jacques didn’t agree with them” (ok this is the last one).

Without further a due, the winner of the 2010 character of the year (drum roll please) Candide!!!! You guessed it Candide was voted the most popular character, because he started out as a knuckle head that believed every word he was told “It is clear , said he that things cannot be otherwise that they are, for since everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarily serves the best end” (Voltaire 520). To a man who achieved the right to chose what he believed and even took an opportunity to educate the educator. “That was very well put, said Candide, but we must cultivate our garden” (Voltaire 580). Good for you Candide.