Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Monkeys! ...Cannibals discriminate?

In chapter sixteen, Cacambo says to Candide, "Why should you find it so strange that in some parts of the world monkeys obtain ladies' favours? They are partly human, just as I am partly Spanish" (70). At first, I did not catch the diss that was directed to the Spanish. Cacambo is stating that being partly Spanish, is sort of like being only partly human, or in other words, a monkey. So, he is comparing Spanish people with monkeys, and therefore I believe the author is targeting Spanish people in this instance.

This is the best monkey clip in the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlVWcTFqC6k

We are also introduced to a couple of could-be cannibals Candide says how "outrageously inhuman" the Oreillons actions were, to cook their fellow-men, and that it was "scarcely the act of a Christian" (71). However, after Cacambo convinces the Oreillons that they are not Jesuits, Candide referst to them as "grand" (72). He goes on to praise them on being fine fellows, and proclaiming "what culture!" (72), seeming to forget that he was just about to be cooked and eaten by these barabarians. He seems to think that as long as they don't do those certain things to me, than that is fine, they are very nice.

I think it is very interesting that his oppinion of the Oreillons changes so quickly, and all because of the way they are treating him. He does not seem to care that they eat people, as long as they aren't eating him. However, was he not just about to become a Jesuit in one of the past chapters? Is this maybe hinting at the point that people are never really what they seem, and people who discriminate against certain people don't even know why, or what they are discriminating? It seems that people who hate a certain type of people don't know why they hate them, or who they actually are.

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Magnanimity -
generous in forgiving an insult or injury; free from petty resentfulness

Jesuit - a member of a Roman Catholic religious order (Society of Jesus) founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1534.

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