Discovering the Unknown

Candide and Cacambo, after escaping from the Jesuit Paraguay, entered Oreillons territory in which was a completely strange and new place for both of them. They barley survived the barbaric Oreillons trying to, by the looks of it, eat them as a punishment for murdering their lovers, monkeys, and for believing that they were Jesuits. "They were encompassed by fifty naked Oreillons, armed with bows and arrows, with clubs and flint hatchets. Some were making a large cauldron boil, others were preparing spits, and all cried: "A Jesuit! a Jesuit! we shall be revenged, we shall have excellent cheer, let us eat the Jesuit, let us eat him up!"" (pg. 70) Showing the Oreillons that they weren’t Jesuits and that they had killed the Colonel saved them. They were set free.

It is interesting how Voltaire describes the New World as being savage and barbaric. It’s a wilderness filled with uncivilized indigenous tribes trying to eat Jesuits. The very first stories about the New World were some years after Christopher Columbus discovered it in 1492. These stories contained experiences of people when they were exploring for gold. Some were against the indigenous tribes, exaggerating the things that they did and how their culture was. Some, mainly missionaries, wrote stories that explained and inspired their diverse culture. The exaggeration of these stories triggered the thought of the New World, by the Europeans, to be a dangerous and uncivilized place. I have no information of Voltaire ever visiting America and experiencing what he describes in Candide. He might have passed on the stories he heard or read of the New World and incorporated them into the novel.

From suffering near death experiences, Candide and Cacambo move on to find help and return to Lady Cunégonde.  Will they experience any more savage tribes? Will they get lost in the rainforest? From what Candide has experienced and from what Voltaire has given the audience, these are possibilities of what Candide’s destiny holds.