The last words of Candide are him stating: "We must cultivate our gardens". What is Candide's meaning behind his statement? What does the garden symbolize? How might you apply Candide's philosophy to your own life?
The garden symbolizes himself. His final statement refers to his own life and how he needs to live his life, and grow. Not be dumbed down by Pangloss' cause and effect nonsense. He needed to grow as a person and live life to understand. You can apply Candide's philosophy to your own life because everyone needs to live life and gain their own understanding of it, not just be dumb and in the shadows your entire life. Marlena Hill
The garden itself probably symbolizes our life and the fruit we get from the hard work we put into it. I see this as, my life is just soil and the nutrients put into it are only from the things I will do in my life and the beauty of it is what I will see when i'm old and can reflect on so I will try to hopefully work as hard as I can now so I can get the fruits of my labor later Mickale
Veronica Wallace I totally agree with Marlena, you need to live your own life and learn your own lessons. Candide has everyone around him trying to tell him what to do, and act, and he needs to learn for himself how to do things the way he wants to. By the end of the book Candide realizes that hes been off doing whatever for 15-20 years,and has learned so many more lessons than Pangloss or The old woman could ever teach him. I would apply Candides theory to my own life by just doing whatever I wanted, breaking rules and learning to be different and act the way I want to. It's all how you want to live your life and do things, that's what he's trying to say.
Brianna parlette I think the statement means we had to live out life the way we want it we have to express ourselves in our own ways. Also I see it as a bit of optiminim like gardens are lucious and beautiful and they signify growth... Maybe growth of candides knowledge. I think Candide has made the transformation from Panglossian optimum to his own form of optmisum. And cultivating his garden is how is is phrasing it
Shonique Edwards When Candide said that, he was basically objecting to everything that Pangloss had taught him all his life. Candide was saying that we have to live our lives, make our mistakes and learn from them. We can't gain knowledge with no experience. We have to take responsibility for the things we do, and not try to say that it was all in God's plan, because some things can be prevented. The garden symbolizes our life, and the lessons learned from it. We can apply this concept to our lives by knowing that we cannot listen to everything we hear, that we have to experience for ourselves, take responsibilities for our actions, and learn from our mistakes.
McKenzie Johnson We must cultivate our garden was Candide finally realizing that Pangloss's optimism was wrong and so were his teachings. Candide says we must cultivate our garden because the garden represents our lives and this is his realization that God does not control everything endlessly. He realizes that we have some control over our own lives and Pangloss wad wrong about this being the best of all possible worlds. We can learn from Candide and this quote because it shows that everything is your own responsibility and everything in your life can be controlled and manipulated to an extent.
Stephana Reid When Candide said "we must cultivate our gardens", it shows that he finally realized that he needs to control and shape his own life. He doesn't have to believe everything that Pangloss says. The garden represents life and the way we live. We can apply Candide's philosophy by not believing that everything that people tell us is true. We need to draw the line between what we believe and what people want us to believe.
Jessica Vilberg "We must cultivate our garden" is referring to your life. Your experiences and personal beliefs that you make throughout your life is what cultivates it. That quote is candid's first real thought, so he was starting to show hoe he is straying from the thoughts of everyone else, like pangloss. He was using all the pain, suffering, and what he saw in his journey to find out where he belonged to cultivate his own garden. In the beginning, the garden was cultivated by someone else, but didn't have any aspects of reality.
It means that you have to personally experience things and go through struggles in order to have success. Gardens don't grow successfully by themselves, someone has to plant it and water it, fertilize it and care for it in order for it to flourish. It is the same with people. You can't just sit around and wait for things to happen for you. You have to strive for things. Pangloss says at the end that the Garden of Eden was created for man to tend to, and that that is a sign that humans aren't meant to be idle. Andie Sifontes
Kristien Salisbury When I hear this I think of "You reap what you sow". You have to "cultivate your garden" to "reap what you sow". The garden obviously symbolizes life. Whenever you think of gardens or tress it's always growing, so is your life. You grow and get stronger. You live and you learn. I believe that Candide got his one and only personal thought correct. Life is a trial and error process.
Tay Brown "We must cultivate our gardens"... Throughout the novel Candide learns and grows as a person. In the beginning he is very sheltered and lives a life where he has no clue about what goes on in the world around him. When he gets kicked out of the castle he becomes more aware of the world. He begins to gain his own experiences, and starts to understand that pangloss can't live his life for him and he has to have his own opinions on situations. Cultivating a garden is like monitoring and making the garden better just as candide bettered himself.
Throughout the novel Candide grows and matures as a person and realizes that he has to have a mind of his own and he can not depend on others idea's to live. He thought that Dr. Pangloss knew everything and was the best he knew everything there was to know about life so he often went to him for advice on situations. However after Pangloss dies Candide realizes that he is capible of thinking on his own. "We must cultivate our gardens"....a growing garden is equal to Candide growing. Onecia Burton
Tori Miller This statement is symbolic and summarizes the theme of the novel. The garden symbolizes life in general. Voltaire is conveying that an individual should manage their own lives, allowing their own experiences to shape their thought patterns - not others
cultivating our gardens means to put into our life what we want to get out. if we put hard work and dedication success will come from those seeds. it also mean that what we put in our garden may not show now but everyone will see it eventually. you also do not want to have weeds in your gaden because then it will ruin your life such as cursing and other things. - Brandon Bernard
The garden symbolizes himself. His final statement refers to his own life and how he needs to live his life, and grow. Not be dumbed down by Pangloss' cause and effect nonsense. He needed to grow as a person and live life to understand. You can apply Candide's philosophy to your own life because everyone needs to live life and gain their own understanding of it, not just be dumb and in the shadows your entire life.
ReplyDeleteMarlena Hill
The garden itself probably symbolizes our life and the fruit we get from the hard work we put into it. I see this as, my life is just soil and the nutrients put into it are only from the things I will do in my life and the beauty of it is what I will see when i'm old and can reflect on so I will try to hopefully work as hard as I can now so I can get the fruits of my labor later
ReplyDeleteMickale
Veronica Wallace
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Marlena, you need to live your own life and learn your own lessons. Candide has everyone around him trying to tell him what to do, and act, and he needs to learn for himself how to do things the way he wants to. By the end of the book Candide realizes that hes been off doing whatever for 15-20 years,and has learned so many more lessons than Pangloss or The old woman could ever teach him. I would apply Candides theory to my own life by just doing whatever I wanted, breaking rules and learning to be different and act the way I want to. It's all how you want to live your life and do things, that's what he's trying to say.
Brianna parlette
ReplyDeleteI think the statement means we had to live out life the way we want it we have to express ourselves in our own ways. Also I see it as a bit of optiminim like gardens are lucious and beautiful and they signify growth... Maybe growth of candides knowledge. I think Candide has made the transformation from Panglossian optimum to his own form of optmisum. And cultivating his garden is how is is phrasing it
Shonique Edwards
ReplyDeleteWhen Candide said that, he was basically objecting to everything that Pangloss had taught him all his life. Candide was saying that we have to live our lives, make our mistakes and learn from them. We can't gain knowledge with no experience. We have to take responsibility for the things we do, and not try to say that it was all in God's plan, because some things can be prevented. The garden symbolizes our life, and the lessons learned from it. We can apply this concept to our lives by knowing that we cannot listen to everything we hear, that we have to experience for ourselves, take responsibilities for our actions, and learn from our mistakes.
McKenzie Johnson
ReplyDeleteWe must cultivate our garden was Candide finally realizing that Pangloss's optimism was wrong and so were his teachings. Candide says we must cultivate our garden because the garden represents our lives and this is his realization that God does not control everything endlessly. He realizes that we have some control over our own lives and Pangloss wad wrong about this being the best of all possible worlds. We can learn from Candide and this quote because it shows that everything is your own responsibility and everything in your life can be controlled and manipulated to an extent.
Stephana Reid
ReplyDeleteWhen Candide said "we must cultivate our gardens", it shows that he finally realized that he needs to control and shape his own life. He doesn't have to believe everything that Pangloss says. The garden represents life and the way we live. We can apply Candide's philosophy by not believing that everything that people tell us is true. We need to draw the line between what we believe and what people want us to believe.
Jessica Vilberg
ReplyDelete"We must cultivate our garden" is referring to your life. Your experiences and personal beliefs that you make throughout your life is what cultivates it. That quote is candid's first real thought, so he was starting to show hoe he is straying from the thoughts of everyone else, like pangloss. He was using all the pain, suffering, and what he saw in his journey to find out where he belonged to cultivate his own garden. In the beginning, the garden was cultivated by someone else, but didn't have any aspects of reality.
It means that you have to personally experience things and go through struggles in order to have success. Gardens don't grow successfully by themselves, someone has to plant it and water it, fertilize it and care for it in order for it to flourish. It is the same with people. You can't just sit around and wait for things to happen for you. You have to strive for things. Pangloss says at the end that the Garden of Eden was created for man to tend to, and that that is a sign that humans aren't meant to be idle.
ReplyDeleteAndie Sifontes
Kristien Salisbury
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear this I think of "You reap what you sow". You have to "cultivate your garden" to "reap what you sow". The garden obviously symbolizes life. Whenever you think of gardens or tress it's always growing, so is your life. You grow and get stronger. You live and you learn. I believe that Candide got his one and only personal thought correct. Life is a trial and error process.
Tay Brown
ReplyDelete"We must cultivate our gardens"... Throughout the novel Candide learns and grows as a person. In the beginning he is very sheltered and lives a life where he has no clue about what goes on in the world around him. When he gets kicked out of the castle he becomes more aware of the world. He begins to gain his own experiences, and starts to understand that pangloss can't live his life for him and he has to have his own opinions on situations. Cultivating a garden is like monitoring and making the garden better just as candide bettered himself.
Throughout the novel Candide grows and matures as a person and realizes that he has to have a mind of his own and he can not depend on others idea's to live. He thought that Dr. Pangloss knew everything and was the best he knew everything there was to know about life so he often went to him for advice on situations. However after Pangloss dies Candide realizes that he is capible of thinking on his own. "We must cultivate our gardens"....a growing garden is equal to Candide growing.
ReplyDeleteOnecia Burton
Tori Miller
ReplyDeleteThis statement is symbolic and summarizes the theme of the novel. The garden symbolizes life in general. Voltaire is conveying that an individual should manage their own lives, allowing their own experiences to shape their thought patterns - not others
cultivating our gardens means to put into our life what we want to get out. if we put hard work and dedication success will come from those seeds. it also mean that what we put in our garden may not show now but everyone will see it eventually. you also do not want to have weeds in your gaden because then it will ruin your life such as cursing and other things. - Brandon Bernard
ReplyDelete