Road To El Dorado Essay, Research Paper

Explorers always wanted to find the “Golden City.” Of course, none of them did. In Candide, Voltaire describes a city that is equivalent to any “Golden City.” This world is the ideal world that almost anyone would like to live in. However, when Candide finds his “Golden City,” known as El Dorado, he leaves it. One might wonder why Candide left El Dorado, but there were many well justified reasons for Candide’s departure from the perfect world he was searching for. Candide gives several arguments for leaving El Dorado. Candide wants to find Cunegund, and he wants to be of higher status. In El Dorado, everyone has wealth; but if Candide leaves with some pebbles from El Dorado he can richer then the nobles in Europe. With these reasons in mind, Candide prepares for his departure from the perfect Utopia. The seemingly perfect Utopia is not that perfect for Candide, for there are a few things that Candide must have in his world that are not present in El Dorado.

Candide was forced to leave his beautiful love, Cunegund. This was hard for Candide because he loved Cunegund very much. Candide could not be happy without Cunegund. He says, “I own, my friend (Cacambo), once more, that the castle where I was born is a mere nothing in comparison to the place where we now are; but still Miss Cunegund is not here (52).” All the riches in the world do not make up for the absence of Cunegund.

Candide also realizes that in El Dorado he is nothing special. Almost everyone in El Dorado has the same wealth. Candide rationalized, “ If we remain here we shall only be as others are; whereas, if we return to our own world with only a dozen El Dorado sheep, loaded with the pebbles of this country, we shall be richer than all kings in Europe (52).” This logic would make sense to a lot of people. If one can live a normal life in one place and extraordinary life in another place, it makes sense that one would want to live the extraordinary life.

So, although life in El Dorado seems perfect, it would not be the ideal place for everyone. For example, in a conversation with the king of El Dorado, Candide discusses ideals that exist in El Dorado. In the conversation, Candide is very surprised about how harmonious El Dorado is. Candide says, ”Have you no monks among you to dispute, to govern, to intrigue, and to burn people who are not the same opinion with themselves (53).” The king replies that everyone on El Dorado has the same opinion. Yet, Candide is not a person who forms his own opinion. Pangloss taught his beliefs to Candide. Candide is used to not having the same opinions as others because not many people agreed with Pangloss’s views. A world where everyone agrees with one another might seem a little mundane to him. A mundane world would not be a perfect world for Candide. It seems Candide likes the excitement and the drama that a less perfect world would bring him.

In the last chapter, a wise Turk told Candide, “I have no more then twenty acres of ground, the whole of which I cultivate myself with the help of my children; and our labor keeps off from us three great evils – idleness, vice, and want (79).” These great evils all existed in some form in El Dorado. Want exists in El Dorado because Candide wants the riches of the land. This is proven by the fact that Candide takes some of the riches of El Dorado. Want, however, is not apparent for the natives in El Dorado. Candide subscribed to all the evil while he was in El Dorado. Candide was idle because he did nothing in El Dorado. He was not a soldier or a general, as he was in his other adventures. Candide also had several moral flaws, but the one that drove him out of El Dorado was greed. Candide knew that he could be very wealthy in other parts of the world with just a few of the riches of El Dorado.

At the end of the book, when Candide is reunited with Cunegund, he learns that Cunegund is not as she used to be. Cunegund had become ugly and ill natured, and the old woman is even worse than Cunegund. Everybody has his own flaws, but through work everyone has skills. Through work the little society created bountiful crops. They became content with working and developing their talents while taking care of the garden. In El Dorado people did not work hard. They had what they needed and then some. Work brings people pride that money and riches cannot provide. Candide left El Dorado to find his true love and to be wealthier then others. Even though things did not happen as Candide hoped, he still found his Utopia by hard work and friendship. Candide gave up his wealth in the end because he realized that wealth was not everything in life.