The Vice of Greed in Voltaire’s Candide

By: Odalis Puma

● People are greedy

● People are never satisfied thus, they would do anything to obtain money.

Thesis:

● A selfish desire to have more of something (especially money).

What is greed?

● Characterizationo old women (greedy) advises

Cunegonde to marry the Governor of Buenos Aires only for his money.

● Symbolismo Candide- symbolizes greed

because he’s leaving a beautiful place, Eldorado (gold & gems), to another country to become even richer.

Voltaire’s use of literary devices

● Imagery o Madame Marquise sexually seduces Candide for

his “two enormous diamonds”.

● Dramatic Ironyo The abbe tricks Candide into thinking he’s

Cunegonde.

Continue….

● “humans are inherently contradictory. Since logic cannot represent human nature, a different style of writing is needed. Ridicule and innuendo are part of this style, but the crucial element is irony”.

Daniel Gordon’s, “Introduction: The Paradoxes of Voltaire”

● “The beautiful lady had observed two enormous diamonds on the fingers of her young visitor, and she praised them so unselfishly that they passed from Candide's fingers to hers”.o key word: “unselfishly” - Voltaire is being sarcastic here;

mocking.

Continue…..

● Apple products

o people break their phones or pretend to lose their phone just so that they can have a new phone upgrade. (Iphone 5 -> Iphone 6 -> Iphone 6 plus)

o 3,000 lost apple Iphones

Examples:

o Scientific American article- “The Must-Have Effect: When an Upgrade is Available, People Tend to Break What They'd Like to Replace” Mug experiment (upgrade condition/ no-

upgrade condition) 61% dropped the mug (upgrade condition)

37% (no-upgrade condition)

Continue….

Gino, Francesca. "The Must-Have Effect: When an Upgrade Is Available, People Tend to Break What They'd Like to Replace." Scientific American. N.p., 19 May 2015. Web. 12 July 2015.Gordon, Daniel. "Introduction: The Paradoxes of Voltaire." N.p., n.d. Web. 8 July

2015.Voltaire, and John Butt. Candide: Or, Optimism. London: Penguin, 1947. Print.

Sources: