Voltaire uses the novel Candide as a tool to impugn the various aspects of his zeitgeist. Through characterization and satire and his techniques of exaggeration and contrast, he attacks multiple points of view and even the Enlightenment he represented. Candide is a story about the two dimensional character of Candide, who is taught from birth not to think for himself and to accept the ideals of others. He chooses to follow the local philosopher Pangloss, who preaches that everything is good, and that the world is the "best of all possible worlds" (Voltaire 12). Throughout the story, Voltaire dramatically disproves this philosophy over and over, but the protagonist sticks with this belief. Each of the characters in Candide represent a different aspect of his zeitgeist, most of whom Voltaire brutally attacks with his satire. Both Pangloss and Candide represent the overly optimistic philosophy that Voltaire wants to...