The truth is, although we like to believe that every soldier is a hero, this is not necessarily true. Candide meets two men after a rough night sleeping in the cold, which buy him a meal. They say to him: " People of your appearance and merit, Sir, never pay for anything." (pg. 22) They pretend to be genuine and kind gentlemen but are actually tricking him into joining the army. After enjoying the meal, Candide is put in chains and taken to serve military service. Here, Voltaire criticizes the process of militarization severely. He demonstrates that people in charge of recruiting troops do manipulate others into joining the army. Of course, not necessarily by buying them meals, but they do not always share with them the conditions that they will be facing. Therefore, people join the army not knowing exactly what they will be going through, and can then not drop out. They get caught up on the idea of being a national hero, but is being a hero worth all the pain? Worth separating millions of families and not being able to even talk to your own?We like to believe the best of all people, which is what Candide did in this situation, but this is unfortunately unrealistic. Some will complete a task just to get it over with and do not care about what others will have to go through. Candide suffered greatly while he was in the army and this is reality. A quote that stood out to me from this was 'You are quite right,' said Candide;'for that is what Mr. Pangloss used to tell me. I am convinced by your courteous behaviour that all is for the best.' (pg. 23) Here, Mr. Pangloss represents society, as it fills people with ingenuity at times. We sometimes unintentionally get tangle ourselves in issues that could have been avoided if we had not trusted in others so easily.
It is hard to face this "ugly truth" because we tend to believe the best in all people, but this is completely false. Behind every satire there is definitely a hidden lesson, and in this case the lesson is to not trust people so easily. However, another lesson behind this ironic situation is to make sure that people know what conditions they will be going through once you have asked them to do something. After all, no one wants to endure unexpected agony and frustration.
