I concluded Candide with many things on my mind. The novel has rot me to my core. Apparently human beings do not suffer only as a result of political oppression, war, or natural disaster, but also from their own intrinsic flaws. Up to this point, all of the characters have been marvelously adept at getting themselves out of difficult or unfortunate situations. The one site of tranquility and joy presented throughout the novel, is the paradise of Eldorado, which Candide and Cacambo choose to leave soon after their arrival. At the time, their decision to venture back into the world seemed unwise and puzzling. Now I myself have created a thesis as to why the men decided to close the door to their own happiness. Boredom.
"We must go and work our garden."
The cure for the crushing boredom described in the previous quotation has been found in the hard work of gardening. Ironic and quite simple seems to be the solution presented. As Pangloss pointed out, this cure recalls the state of mankind in the garden of Eden, where man was master of all things. Primitive innocence predominated the human race, so in their small plot of land, these characters would in theory seem to have a control over life and the destiny which they could have not have achieved up to this point.The plague would have eventually hit them, due to the fact that perfection brings about no thrill, which comes to show that humans prefer to be doing something, weather it is "being raped a hundred times by negro pirates, having a buttock cut off, running the gauntlet in the Bulgar army, being flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fé, being dissected and rowing in the galleys," experiencing, in a word, misery, rather than living in the peak of boredom with no life to propel and drive them forward. Boredom, as Martin would describe it, seems to result not from the absence of happiness, but from the absence of suffering; life itself.
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