Two Reading Selections from Voltaires Candide - Essay Example

Voltaire’s form and style of writing are remarkably outstanding and quite evident in the way he structures the plot of the Candide, which gets the reader eager only to come to a sudden ending of various reading of his work. For instance, the two reading selection, which I choose: What Befell Candide among the Bulgarians (Chapter 2) and A Tempest, a Shipwreck, an Earthquake, and What Else Befell Dr Pangloss, Candide, and James, the Anabaptist (Chapter 5); both had a “surprise ending”.

In fact, the ending was quite a surprise. The escape from the battle Bulgarian territory came to be the end of Candide’s encounter in the land and was the surprise end of the reading as well. I realized the ending of this selection reading would be different from what I had presumed according to what the beginning of the reading suggested; when Candide was overtaken by four other heroes and asked him to choose between two fatal options by a court-martial. Coincidentally, his Majesty of the land happened to pass by and he survived the ill-fated adventure.

Through the philosophical phrase of “the best of worlds possible” Voltaire has been successful to convince the suitability of the surprise ending (Voltaire, n.d). In the second reading, Tempest, a Shipwreck, an Earthquake, and What Else Befell Dr Pangloss, Candide, and James, the Anabaptist the storyline was structured similar to the first selection reading in that it had a “surprise reading” that was not in any way suggested at the beginning of the reading. In essence, the reading was introduced in a way that leads me to perceive the characters’ resolve as a solution to their predicament since they got a chance to sail to find means of improving their lives, but the roadstead to Lisbon was characterized by a shipwreck and earthquake that turned things around.