The Act

Since Candide laid eyes on Lady Cunégonde nothing has gone the way he wished. He has been kicked out of his “earthly paradise”, as said in page 23. He has been drafted to be a part of in the Bulgarian army, here he is court marshaled and has to choose between 12 bullets to his brain or being flogged 36 times by the whole regiment, he chooses the second option. He is spared by the King of Bulgaria and soon after participates in a bloody war between the Bulgarians and Arabs. He soon finds himself as s deserter and a beggar in Holland were no one wants to help him. As Candide is having a discussion with a minister and is treated horribly by him and his wife, a man called James sees the cruelty. James takes Candide to his home and washes him, gives him food and offers him a job. This immense kindness that no one had express towards Candide overwhelms him and says, “ My tutor Pangloss, was quite right,’ he exclaimed, ‘when my tutor told me that all is for the best in this world of ours, for your generocity moves me much more than the harshness of that gentalemen in the black gown and his wife’”(27). Just a simple act of kindness can impact a person, such a big act of kindness that James shows Candide he is deeply commoved and has immense gratitude.