Humanities & Classics 1002
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Renaissance Forum
Humanities & Classics 1002 |
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Here I am, to tell you about Voltaire's Candide, yet one more time. I don't know how many of you have read this book, but I think you should. It's fairly short, and it's entertainly amusing. The part I want to talk about today is the few chapters he writes on El Dorado....
To give you a little background to the story (which you should all read, by the way), Candide is the main character and through a weird twist of events/fate, he ends up on a boat to South America, trying to find his love, Cunegonde. Candide and his servant are travelling through the South American jungles when they come upon the city of El Dorado.
By now, you're probably wondering why I bring this up. Well, last week (or maybe it was the week before) we were discussing the Aztecs, and all the gold they had, and that to the Aztecs, gold really wasn't a big deal. The way I see it, they thought of gold the way we think of aluminum, it's always around, and in such an abundance, that we use it for common everyday things. This is why I bring up El Dorado in Candide...
Back to the story...
Candide and his servant, Cacambo, found their way to a long river, they floated down their river on a canoe, and climbed over mountains, trying to find any town or land that would help them find Cunegonde again. One day, they came upon El Dorado...
this is straight from the book, which you should all read, by the way...
"Several children of the village, dressed in torn gold brocade, were playing quoits outside the village. Our two men from the other world amused themselves by looking on; their quoits were large round pieces, yellow, red, and green which shone with peculiar luster. The travelers were curious enough to pick up some of them; they were gold, emeralds, and rubies, least of which would have been the greatest ornament in the Mogul's throne. 'No doubt,' said Cacambo, 'these children are the sons of the King of this country playing at quoits.' At that moment the village schoolmaster appeared to call them into school. 'This,' said Candide, ' is the tutor of the royal family.' The little beggars immediately left their game, abandoning their quiots and everything with which they had been playing. Candide picked them up, ran to the tutor, and presented them to him humbly, giving him to understand by signs that their Royal Highnesses had forgotten their gold and their precious stones. The village schoomaster smiled, threw them on the ground, gazed for a moment at Candide's face with much surprise and continued to walk on his way. 'Where are we?' cried Candide. 'The children of the King must be well brought up, since they are taught to despise gold and precious stones."
To the people in El Dorado, gold, rubies, and emeralds, were not precious stones. There was such an abundance of them that they weren't even used as currency. Our "precious stones" were their pebbles, the gravel they lined their streets with! The children were simply playing with 'rocks' not realizing how valuable they were to people of different cultures. There's another scene in that chapter where Candide tries to buy dinner using a bar of gold. The citizen of El Dorado laughs at him, giggling that Candide is trying to buy food using their gravel and rocks as currency.
When Candide and Cacambo leave El Dorado, they take a lot of the "gravel" with them. The people in the town think it's so odd that these strange visitors want to take their gravel away. But hey, they're only rocks, who needs 'em?
In our society today, we act the same way about things. We throw away what other cultures or peoples deem important. I guess it's all relative.
alissa :)
p.s. Read Candide by Voltaire, already! What are you waiting for? What else are you going to do over spring break? :)