Throughout the whole book we have seen that the punishments
given out are very twisted, such as when Candide is brought into the army.
There, he is severely beaten for being such a free spirit and a compliant
soldier. This punishment does not fit; he committed the crime of not completely
conforming to the army. Later in story, Candide murders two religious upholders
(the Jew and Jesuit) and leaves the area unscathed and completely unpunished.
After the group leaves El Dorado with the sheep carrying riches on the boat
Candide is punished indirectly. The greedy captain steals Candide’s riches
after leaving El Dorado on the boat, but the captain dies later in a storm,
taking the riches with him. These random punishments, or lack of punishments,
represent the two forces of good and evil working against each other. In
effect, Candide’s punishments are sometimes deserved and other times cruel and
unnecessary. The world in which he lives in is a world of competition and the
competition is fair in abilities. Even so, sometimes either good or evil
prevails more than the other. This is looking at the question with a Manichean
mindset, one that I’ve come to trust through reading Candide. So I guess the answer to the question is up to
us. What are appropriate punishments for crimes committed? Who is to say they
fit? It’s possible that people support the good or evil of the world with their
beliefs and actions. We might just be helping good or evil, and that is without
a doubt up to us humans to decide.
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