Candide Ending

I found the ending to Voltaire's Candide rather unfulfilling. After all of the things that Candide has gone through, the terrible events he is left with a simple garden and some people who he is not truly friends with. His one true love has turned horribly ugly, and he has nothing left to do but wallow in his sadness. That is what happens in the physical sense. In a more figurative view though, at the end Candide repeats "We must cultivate our garden. (75)" This shows how Candide has decided that he must forge his own way in life. He must make life the best as he can. This is far from where Candide began simply believing any thing he had heard. In the literal sense I found the ending of Candide terrible. In the figurative sense it made sense though. Candide finally reaches an achievement that he couldn't get to throughout the rest of the story. Thinking for himself. He finally becomes self sufficient and realizes that he knows what is best. It seems that his many experiences have actually helped him, rather than simply sliding off of him as they did in the past.