Who wouldn’t want to live in Eldorado? The ground was made of gold nuggets! To some it might even parallel to heaven (Streets of Gold)! Everything seems so comfortable and happy. Like a fairy tale really. The people are of one opinion and get along fine. Everything is good and fine.
As Candide moves from innocence to experience he sees that the “Castle Thunder-ten-tronckh” would certainly never compare to even the simple houses in Eldorado. Their first meal was quite peculiar and quite massive. They were not lacking. Cooked Parakeets, vulture, three hundred doves, six hundred humming birds, and roasted monkeys! (76). What?!
Though they seemed very happy and prosperous, one can clearly see that the people of Eldorado lived a secluded and ignorant lifestyle. Candide and Cacambo were sent to find out more about Eldorado because the locals they came upon first had no idea. Clearly history was not important to them. After finding the old man, who was one hundred and seventy two, they learned a little history he was only privileged to know. In their conversation, Candide and his servant find out that no one is allowed to leave Eldorado (78). This was a big red flag for me. Yes, it was a very dangerous journey, but the king quickly found a safe way for Candide to get out didn’t he? (83).
Why did they live a life of seclusion? They couldn’t understand why, but they knew that Europeans were greedy for even the most worthless thing, the dirt in the ground. Therefore they made a law to prohibit anybody from crossing the borders of the kingdom. This way no one would risk getting killed on the way out; and they could keep Eldorado their safe secret. They also wouldn’t have to wear themselves out keeping away threats to the kingdom, because nobody would know about it.
Their seclusion prevented them from knowledge that they perhaps would have enjoyed. The old man thought Candide was crazy when he asked him what religion the people were. He believed that, of course, there was only one religion (79). They needed no courts and there was no prison. The king said to Candide on page eighty, “We are all of the same opinion here.” Eldorado was Candide’s dream world, and he didn’t seem to find a thing wrong with it.
Eldorado seemed so rosy at first, but as the book progressed, It just became more and more eerie to me. It reminds me of the feeling I had when I read The Giver in high school. It’s so perfect, that’s it’s too good to be true. And the saddest part is that Candide does not seem to see the peculiarities at all. It seems he is put under the spell of happiness that everyone else is under. On page eighty he contradicts himself in his thought of praise toward Eldorado, “If our friend Pangloss had seen Eldorado he would have not kept saying that Castle Thunder-ten-tronckh was the lovliest house on earth: it shows that people ought to travel.” Here he was praising Eldorado for its excellence when the whole society had never stepped out of the bounds of their kingdom. `
I think my mind is made up. I would not want to be stuck in any place, even as comfortable as Eldorado, on earth if I could never travel out and be made bound to a lifetime of ignorance. I do not want to go to Eldorado despite its charm. Even if this world is painful and hard, and I don’t have a plate full of three hundred doves in front of me- I’d rather know what’s going on.
I like you take on Eldorado, Anna. I myself found Eldorado to be one of my favorite parts of the book. Though I didn't see the the depth of what you saw. I wanted to go to Eldorado, but your thoughts on the place never crossed my mind. I never thought how the people were ignorant of the world around them. This was interesting to read. Even though I think I still love to live in Eldorado I do not want to live in that particular Eldorado. Thanks for pointing to out the flaws in what seems like paradise.
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