The Story of Social Warism

After reading Barbara´s first blog entry on Candide, I immediately remembered the connection Viviana and I made when we read Vonnegut´s Slaughterhouse-Five: Billy Pilgrim, Candide and Forest Gump are very similar characters!

All of them are introduced as naive characters who incidentally end up involved in war and survive it. For me, war is just unnecessary rawblood butchery and it´s a miracle that these three men manage to stay alive. All of them became involved unintentionally ("He had just enough skin on his feet to walk, when the King of Bulgars joined battle with the King of the Abars." (pg. 25)), yet I find it startling that Candide is the only one of these characters who is shocked from these events (Candide trembled like a philosopher, and hid himself the best he could during this heroic butchery. (pg. 25))

This also reminds me of an article I read a long time ago about people who join the army to overcome poverty, but never realize it's a lifechanging experience. Their minds are scarred forever, and many even suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I remembered this article because it's exactly the opposite of what happens in any of these novels, how only Candide seems affected by his involvement in the war. In other words, Candide is the only of these characters that has made sense and felt fear, what any sane person would do.