Friday, January 18, 2008

Candide's Racism

Throughout Candide Voltaire discusses racism through his characters. The old lady is the first to reveal some sort of racism and/or close-mindedness. The old lady tells of her journey and how she arrived at the point that she is now. She tells that she had been had my European men and by angry negro pirates. When discussing rape, one would think that any person who is raped would think of the person that committed the act as a deviant or a criminal. As the old lady discusses it she talks as if the Europeans were just in their actions of raping her. In Chapter 11, The old lady also talks about the temperate weather of European nations and how the Europeas have milk in their blood and how the Africans have heat in their blood. This is basically saying that all the white men of Europe were cool and all the black men of Africa were angry. This shows close-mindedness as well as racism.

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