Something To Talk About...

At the beggining of chapter 5, there was a metaphor that I really liked. It is a parragraph long, yet it is very impressive so I'd really like to share it. It goes as follows "For instance moles and blackbirds do not eat each other, mate with each other, or compete with each other for living space. Even so, we must not treat them as completely insulated. They may compete for something, perhaps earthworms. This does not mean you will ever see a mole and a blackbird engaged in a tug of war over an earthworm; indeed a blackbird may never set his eyes on a mole in his life. But if you wiped out the population of moles, the effect of might be dramatic" (Page 66). I'd like to apply that to a story I just invented. There are three people in it. Paco, Juan, and Camila. Paco and Camila are good friends, and Juan and Camila are good friends, but Paco and Juan don't even know the other exists. One bad day, Paco had a heart attack and died. Everyone is sad, mainly Camila. Juan didn't know Paco existed, but he is so affected by Camila's sudden sad and depressed attitude that he is kind of manipulated to being similar. His mood is now down, as well as Camila's, for someone he didn't even know. Both cases, the blaackbirds and worms metaphor and mine are similar. It is easy to let ourselves be carried by what we have around us. T.V. is almost always a bad influenze, some radio programs are as well, music, videogames and other people sometimes make us change our mood according to theirs. I don't know if this is bad or not, and I kind of can relate it to the book in the sense that this is a selfish act, because we unconscuosly make others feels as bad and sad as we are. I guess we just need to stop letting ourselves be carried by other's feelings and moods.

What Type Of Book Is This?

I am a little further through The Selfish Gene, and it just seems to me as if I were reading a book assigned to my Pre AP Biology course! All it talks about is DNA replication, genes, nucleotides and those kind of stuff I learned about a moth ago. It's getting a little frustrating for me because I had some trouble learning this info well explained (there is a lot I still don't understand), well less am I going to get it from a book that just barely quickly talks about the topic. I don't like to be reading a science book in english class! I have read these weird kinds of texts before in class and have learned to read them and analyze them, look at them as texts, books, not what they are. It's like when we read the Bible. I read it as a very important english text, not as a religious book to follow. What is wrong about this book is that you cannot analyze things like "A DNA molecule is a long chain of building blocks, small molecules called nucleotides" (Page 22). There's just npthing metaphorical about it, nothing satyrical or ironic. They are just science facts. The funny thing is I remembered about my biology teacher when I started reading the book, and the next day in class asked her if she had read the book, and she said she was reading it just now! So for my english class i'm reading the same book that my biology teacher is reading, a book filled with science facts.. weird!

What Does It Mean?

Reading the first few chapters of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, there were many words he describes that you need to know to be able to understand the book. A few of those words, some described by the author himself, are:

• Stable (thing): "A collection of atoms that is permanent enough or common enough to deserve a name. It may be a unique collection of atoms, such as the Matterhorn, that lasts long enough to be worth naming." (Page 12)

• Class (of entities): "Such as raindrops, that come into existence at a sufficiently high rate to deserve a collective name, even if one of them is short-lived." (Page 12)

• Selfishness: Increasing one's welfare at it's own interest to achieve one's goals. ( Kind of parafrazed by me, from page 4).

• Alturism: The opposite of selfishness. Increasing the welfare of the rest of the group to help oneself achieve one's goals. ( Kind of parafrazed by me, from page 4).

• Welfare: "Defined as 'chances of survival', even if the effect on actual life and death prospects is so small as to seem negligible." (Page 4)

• Survival Machine: "It embraces all animals, plants, bacteria and viruses"(Page 21) I would add to it 'all living species that have managed to survive over time'.

Why Are We People?

When i started reading Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, in chapter 1 I saw a quote, in page 1, when he says "We no longer have to resort to superstition when faced with deep problems: Is there a meaning to life? What are we for? What is man?". This quote made me remember my first ever Pre AP English class, when the first thing we were asked when entering was: What are we here for?, how did we get here?, and where are we going? What Dawkins says is we are here just because of evolution, not to fulfill any destiny or weird things like those. In my APEnglish class we read things like The Bible, Gilamesh, and many other things like thoser that made reference to God, destiny, and those superstitious things. This books contradics them, saying we're just evolution.

I Agree with most of what Dawkins says in his first chapter. He talks about us having this selfish gene, that makes us be the opposite of altirustic, meaning wanting the best for ourselves. Most animals are alturistic, because our gene wants it to. We don't have to follow our gene's instructions all our live, but we do most of the time because we like being selfish, not alturistic.

I found this video on youtube. It kind of assimilates to Candide, because the priest is in a mission to kill the leader of the jesuits.

The relationship I found is that Candide wasn't on a mission, but he found the jesuit leader and killed him. I know it is a weird

relationship, but when I saw the video it really reminded me of that part of Candide. Candide does not go on a mission

to kill the jesuit, but he ends up killing him because the jesuit hit him with a sword. Candide has become a rebel! He has killed

three people now, and most without a valid reason. This video as well does not give us the reason why he wants the jesuit

leader killed, he just does. Candide as well, just wants him dead after fighting for Lady Cunegonde and being hit.

Who's Being Mocked Here?

Voltaire has many targets he mocks in Candide, but a very clear one in chapter XIII is the nobility, or high class, at the time. When Candide, Lady Cunegonde and the old lady arrive at Buenos Ayres, Don Fernando immediately falls for Lady Cunegonde. He asks if she is married, and Candide says no, so he declares his passion to her and asks for her hand in marriage. This is something very commonly seen, rich people handing out marriages thinking everyone will marry them because they are important and have money. This is not only back then, you still see it alot.

What is worse, Lady Cunegonde goes for advice to the old lady, ans she says 'yes marry him, he has money and is important'! So even though the guy thinks he's cool because he has money, she continues his flow and is about to say yes! She's a heartless b**ch! It's the second time she is with somebody for their money. Voltaire's making fun of both of them here.

On chapter 14, to see the target is even easier. Just by reading a couple pages I found it. It is again the high class, aristocracy. They think they are superior because they have money and power. In page 62 they say "An excellent dinner was served in gold plates, and while the paraguayans ate their maize on wooden dishes in the open field in the full blaze of the sun, his reverence the Colonel retired to the shade of his arbour". The Colonel makes his army eat simple things on simple plates in the hot sun, while he, in the shade, eats in golden plates. I kind of assimilated this to the way many people treat their maids, drivers, workers, ect. Give them inferior things, not let them even try to be higher class. Seems to me like things haven't changed much since.

Old Lady's Story

"Where shall I find more Inquisitors and Jews to replace them" (Page 46, Candide). Heartless. This is the only word to describe the 'lovely' and 'innocent' Lady Cunégonde that Candide is in love with. How would someone even think of something like that. HThis is a true picture of humanity, of how some women are. They just look for people because of the money, because they need something. It's what in spanish we would call 'descaro'.

I was very impressed by the old woman's behaviour. She helped Candide, gave him food, shelter, and even the love of his life back. She gave him advice, accompanied he and Lady Cunégonde everywhere and was very helful, but we don't know why. Then I kept reading, and she started telling them her life-story. It is horrible. Her first years were the life everyone wishes for, but then they started to get worse and worse. She had her parents slaughtered in front of her, was raped by a negro, was sold to a governor and then had to live a plague. Her life was a misery back then. She had one but-cheek cut off and have to live as a fugitive bartender in bars. She said "I have never forgotten that I am the daughter of a Pope"(Page 57).It's ironical that Voltaire says that, because popes can't have daughters, but deeper than that, you must never forget where you came from, this will always help you move on and continue with your life. This might be why the old lady is so kind, she remembered what had happened to her, so many people helped her, so she decided to help others.

Thoughts about Candide

There is a sentence in chapter 5 that really caught my attention. It is when Pangloss says to the sailor/ thief that was on the ship with them. To understand the context, Pangloss, Candide, James the anabaptist and the thief were on a ship, it sank, there was an earthquake and when they got to the destroyed land, the thief finds money and buys the pleasures of a girl. Pangloss grabs him and says to him "This will never do, my friend; you are not obeying the universal rule of Reason; you have misjudged the occasion." Obviously the other guy turns back and says "Bloody hell" (Page 34, Candide). If we see it from Pangloss' side, then obviously he's right. There is a disaster, everyone is dead or dying and this guy just comes in, steals money and has sex. It has no reason, as Pangloss said. Without even helping anyone he just comes and abuses. But, though, if we see it from the thief's view, well he was just on a ship for some time, was in a natural didaster, and who knows how much time since the last time he did it, so as a good low class person, he looks for the first easy sex he finds. It's kind of hard to see who Voltaire is mocking here, if he's mocking someone at all.

There was a part which reminded me a lot of a book I just read. In page 35, a man besides Pangloss says "for if all is for the best, there can be no such thing as the fall of Man and eternal punishment." I laughed and thought to myself 'this guy certainly hasn't read Dante's Inferno (haha)'.

Candide- Chapters 2-3

Voltaire has many different topics that he makes fun of in his book Candide, like war, romance, church, and many others. One he focuses a lot on is kings. He mocks them many times. There was a part I found that I consider it indirectly tries to mock the king. In page 23 he says "but what we want to know is wether you are a devoted admirer of the King of the Burglars... Oh but he is the most amiable of Kings..." (Pg 23, Candide). What I thought is they must be mocking all kings. They steal everyone's money, yet do some good things for the people. Voltaire might be indirectly mocking them by calling him the King of the Burglars.

Irony is a strong characteristic in satire. There is a lot of irony in Candide. In page 27 a minister says "Do you believe the pope is antichrist, my friend?" What the church says is that the pope is the messenger of God in Earth, so why would he be considered antichrist? Voltaire kind of mocks the church here by saying 'you're the ones who chose him', which leaves them with no one to blame. Candide says something to avoid answering the question, so the minister immediately falls on him telling him to leave immediately, what the church does in many cases. It's funny how each person can interpret satire how he wants.