Candide · Chapter
Chapter XIX: What Happened to Them at Surinam and How Candide Got Acquainted with Martin explained
Candide and Cacambo lose most of their sheep and treasure during the journey to Surinam.
What happens
Candide and Cacambo lose most of their sheep and treasure during the journey to Surinam. In Surinam, Candide encounters a mutilated slave who reveals the brutal realities of colonial exploitation, leading Candide to renounce Pangloss's optimism. He then attempts to arrange passage to Buenos Aires to rescue Cunégonde, but the Spanish captain refuses. Candide sends Cacambo ahead to Buenos Aires with diamonds to bribe the governor, while he plans to meet him in Venice. After being cheated by the Dutch skipper Vanderdendur and mistreated by the magistrate, Candide seeks a fellow traveler who is the most discontented man in the province, eventually choosing a poor philosopher named Martin to accompany him.
Themes in this chapter
Optimism vs. Pessimism
Candide explicitly renounces Pangloss's optimism after witnessing the mutilated slave, declaring it 'the madness of maintaining that everything is right when it is wrong.'
Suffering and Human Cruelty
The chapter highlights extreme human cruelty through the slave's story of amputation and exploitation, as well as the greed and dishonesty of Vanderdendur and the magistrate.
Characters to notice
- Candide
Renounces optimism after seeing the mutilated slave; sends Cacambo to rescue Cunégonde; is cheated by Vanderdendur and the magistrate; selects Martin as his traveling companion.
- Cacambo
Travels with Candide to Surinam; is sent to Buenos Aires with diamonds to bribe the governor and retrieve Cunégonde.
- Mynheer Vanderdendur
The Dutch skipper who cheats Candide by raising the fare repeatedly and then sails away with the two sheep and their treasure.
- Martin
A poor philosopher chosen by Candide as the most discontented man; he has suffered many misfortunes including being robbed by his wife, beaten by his son, and persecuted by preachers.
Key passages
“When we work at the sugar-canes, and the mill snatches hold of a finger, they cut off the hand; and when we attempt to run away, they cut off the leg; both cases have happened to me. This is the price at which you eat sugar in Europe.”
The slave explains that if a finger is caught in the sugar mill, they cut off the hand, and if they try to escape, they cut off the leg—both of which have happened to him. This is the cost of sugar consumption in Europe.
Candide's encounter with the slave leads him to reject optimism.
“Oh, Pangloss! thou hadst not guessed at this abomination; it is the end. I must at last renounce thy optimism.”
Candide exclaims that Pangloss never foresaw such horror, and he must finally abandon Pangloss's philosophy of optimism.
Candide's pivotal renunciation of optimism.
“What is this optimism? said Cacambo. Alas! said Candide, it is the madness of maintaining that everything is right when it is wrong.”
Cacambo asks what optimism means, and Candide replies that it is the insane belief that everything is good when it is actually bad.
Candide defines optimism as a delusion.