In Voltaire’s novel Candide, he satirizes many topics, which were considered to be a
serious matter in the seventeenth. Throughout this novel Voltaire pokes fun at: slavery,
optimism, genuine social problems, religion and the class hierarchy and other topics. Volatire
satirizes the importance of names for example, “There lived in Westphalia, in the castle of the
Baron of Thunder-Ten-Tronckh” (p.355); he makes them sound very important just by their
names. “Pangloss gave instruction in metaphysico-theologico-cosmoloonigology” (p.356),
Volatire is making fun of the useless titles behind a person’s name. When in reality, all Pangloss
teaches people, “…for sense everything is made to serve an end, everything necessarily serves
the best end” (p.356). An example of satire can be found at the scene where the Anabaptist
Jacques, fell overboard while helping a sailor, and Candide wants to save him, “Candide rushed
to the rail, and saw his benefactor rise for a moment to the surface, then sink forever. He
wanted to dive to his rescue; but the philosopher Pangloss prevented him by proving that the
bay of Lisbon had been formed expressly for this Anabaptist to drown in” (p.362). This example
points fun at Pangloss’s philosophy .I think that Pangloss’s quote “…for since everything is made
to serve an end” (p.356) was taken too far, because even the best philosophy shouldn’t stop a
person from saving their good friend. Voltaire also satirizes the mother and daughter. He said
that the Baroness “weighed in the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty pounds, was greatly
respected…” (p.355) and “Her daughter Cunegonde, aged seventeen, was a ruddy-cheeked girl,
fresh, plump, and desirable” (p. 355). His is making fun of how the royal families back then
were big and fat because they were the ones that could afford all the food and ate everything
up.