Optimism In Candide

Candide is a novella written by the French philosopher Voltaire during the Enlightenment. The novella is centered on a young man named Candide who lives under his mentor, Pangloss. The work takes us through the great hardships of Candide’s adventure, where he struggles to settle down and live a peaceful life. The novel concludes with Candide saying that in order to obtain happiness 'We must cultivate our garden'. The meaning of this quote seems to be open to a wide variety of interpretations. This quotation is essentially rejecting the notion of optimism and expressing the idea that there is no solution to the problems of the world, and that the only thing we can do is carry on and ignore the world’s hardships.
Throughout the story, Pangloss