Was Candide deserving of the brutal things that were done to him? My first instinct is to say, of course not, nobody deserves the skin coming off ones body...lets be real. And obviously Voltaire was going for satirical, blown out of proportion, worst case senarios here but if we are talking literally, nobody wants that to happen to anyone. It is just so sad, not to mention gruesome.
But on the other hand, what if this shocking punishment is what it took to snap Candide into the reality of the world? Was he too sheltered? Would he have been ignorant without a life-changer like this? Having read more of the book, and observing that he still is trying to cling to a part of Pangloss' philosophy means that this event didn't change his thinking drastically. But then again it seems as though he goes through multiple tragedies everyday after leaving his home, so...
Then we could look at it from a different angle. Were the people whipping him in the right to be doing so? I'm sure that if we were living in the novel, that group would have some really justifiable reasons to do so, some would be so convinced that this is what needed to be done. So do they deserve to stand up for what they believe in, as violent as that makes it? I guess I'm keeping in mind the time period and everything...
Me, being the compassionate person that I am, was happy when someone came to Candide's rescue. But I am open to debating over the issue simply because currently in the novel I think Candide is a little too dumb and he needs to be shook; it's time for him to get out of bed.
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