The concept of the garden state appears to refer to the garden of eden, and to the quote from genesis stating that "the lord took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it." Dressing it and keeping it is what Candide is referring to when he says that "we must cultivate our garden" (p. 94), implying that at the end stage of the book, Candide and his companions have reached an Eden of sorts. If we are to go along with the myth that Eden is the closest thing to paradise, Candide has apparently found heaven on earth, also known as, the best of all possible worlds, proving that throughout the entire book, even having gone through many hardships, he never does shed Pangloss's philosophy.
I also think that it is important to note that even in their garden state, they are undeniably bored. According to the dervish on page 92, man is supposed to "Cultivate your land, drink, eat, sleep and [keep your mouth shut]." This does not give Candide the sense of higher purpose that he has been striving for, and the old woman even proclaims on page 91 that she thinks it might be better to "undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered" than "simply to sit here and do nothing." These views are important to me because I believe they portray the way that society tends to view "happiness." We see being happy as something primitive and simple. Those who are happy are somehow inferior? Like the story we read at the start of the year about the Omelas, people need suffering in order to be interesting.
So if the garden state is paradise and the best of all possible worlds, and in the best of all possible worlds we are happy, and happiness is "basic," and being board does not translate to happiness, the best of all possible worlds and the garden state cannot exist.
I agree that the best of all possible worlds and the garden state cannot exist; every place that Candide goes seems to have flaws including the "perfect" society of Eldorado. In the same way, even as the characters set up the garden secluded from society and its misery, they are content but not truly happy. With all that you have said, do you think pure happiness exists?
ReplyDeleteSo he is still set on saying that Pangloss has been right all along and he has, indeed, found the best of all possible worlds. This isn't really how I thought about it but it fits in better with the rest of the book. Maybe this is Voltaire's way of saying that some people are so set in their ways that they will just say they are right even when they feel they are wrong.
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