Martin

To open up a different area of discussion, Wednesday's reading presented us with a new character, Martin, who appears to be the pessimistic equalizer to Candide's severe optimism. Candide asks Martin whether or not he believes, "that men have always massacred each other?" Martin responds with the rhetorical question asking Candide if he believed, "that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they could get them?" The point and area of debate that I think the author is attempting to push is whether we believe humans are innately good or are innately bad. Though the author has yet to reveal his point of view, it seems that Adams would lean towards humans being innately bad since he makes use of characters like Martin to point out all of the bad in everyone. However, the Christian religion that he is criticizing would agree that humans are innately bad, which is why they are in need of a higher being, God, to account for their sins. Perhaps the author is not totally out to disprove Christianity, but picks and chooses his points to refute.