How to Look at Life?

Candide has been through so much throughout the story but he always finds his way out of his terrible moments. Pangloss, his great friend and philosopher taught him that one should always be optimistic no matter the circumstances. Pangloss would look at situations the way that normally people wouldn’t. For example when people were talking about the volcano that might erupt he said not to worry because "For it is impossible for things not to be where they are, because everything is for the best." Pg 35. I find it interesting that there was a chance that the volcano would explode but he was calm about the situation. Pangloss influenced so much Candide that I believe that is the reason why Candide has gotten so far. Since the moment Candide was kicked out of Lady Conegonde everything seemed bad for him, the earthquake, almost being sacrificed but also I realized that he has made it through okay. Just the fact that he reencountered with Pangloss and with Lady Conegonde, it is a good sign. 

Maybe that is what is missing in the world. Thanks to Pangloss´s philosophy of always being positive Candide is on a roll, but what would happen if all of us applied that same philosophy in our own lives? We would probably be better off. A bad situation will never change, but we can change the way we look at it. My mom always tells me that everything in life has a meaning and when I am going through difficult times she always tells me to stay positive. Even though it is something nice to hear it is hard to do, but when we do it, it starts changing the situation and what comes out of it. Because Candide was always positive good things started coming towards him. He was faced with terrible situations but because of his attitude towards them he was fine. 

I hope Candide continues with this philosophy because if he was able to escape from being killed, and saved from an earthquake he can overcome whatever. I use this philosophy when I am going to exams because I get very nervous, so I always say to myself that I am going to do fine because if I start saying that I don’t know anything I know ill do poorly. Staying optimistic relates to a phrase that my mom always tells me, "El poder de la palabra hablada" it means the power of the word spoken. What you say to yourself is what’s going to happen. Sp if we stay positive good things are going to happen to us just like Candide. In the moment it seems like it is the end of the world but at the end we understand why that happened and why it was the best thing that could have happened to us.