Just finished reading Candide for a second time. First time I read it I was a teenager, but now as an adult I understand the message of the story.
Basically the narrative agrees in the inevitability of suffering attached to life in this world, but gives the reader a simple solution which is : WORK, old trusty sweat on the forehead.
Arguing that work banishes the three great evils which are BOREDOM, VICE, AND POVERTY.
Amongst other things, the author suggests we should not complain in our work, and that we ask not questions such as what is the meaning of life and why are we here?
I’ll finish with one of the ending quotes:
“ When man was placed in the garden of Eden, he was put there to dress it, and to keep it, to work, in fact, which proves that man was not born to an easy life”
by Renoit