The book Candide by Voltaire is a humorous satire built on many themes. Through his book, Voltaire expresses his vision of life by criticizing many aspects of humanity at that time. It focused on war, religion and love, but the main target of Voltaire's satire was a certain philosophy. All of the preceding topics unite to ridicule the philosophy that, as the character Pangloss said, “things cannot be otherwise than as they are; for as all things were created for an end, they must necessarily be created for the best end" (1).To begin with, it is important to clarify that Voltaire's book does not deal with one thing or another in particular, but of life in general. This becomes evident when Pangloss speaks to Candide about cultivating his garden, he says, “for when man was put into the Garden of Eden, it was with the intention of clothing him; and this proves that man was not born to be idle", to this assertion Martin responds "To work therefore without dispute... it is the only way to make life bearable." (30). What Voltaire was trying to say is that it may be impossible to be truly happy, but that the only way for people to be contemptuous is to work. Voltaire understood that if there is happiness in this. world, it will only come from the fruits of our labor Moreover, a very important theme of this book is war Voltaire shows how sometimes young people are deceived, even forced to fight wars that have nothing to do with them. This is something we still see today in many parts of the world, young children being drafted into armies against their will and forced to kill and die for a cause unknown to them. also makes fun of unnecessary wars, for example when Martin talks about the French and English war...... middle of paper ...... Conclusion, all the topics discussed previously were brought together by Voltaire in an ingenious way a way of ridiculing the philosophy that everything is exactly as it should be and that everything bad happens for the common good. All the tragedies suffered by Candide were introduced into the short story in an attempt to refute this idea. The book Candide made me think a lot about everything that is wrong with humanity. Voltaire was very successful and the story of Candide achieved its goal because it is difficult to imagine that anyone would still believe in this philosophy after reading this very ingenious, funny and entertaining short story.Works CitedVoltaire, . “Voltaire’s Candide”. mescours.mdc.edu. T. Smollett, and Web. July 5 2011. .