In Candide chapter 16 they mention “two girls and two monkeys, and what happened to them amongst the savage Oreillons.” Candide saw two naked girls tripping across a meadow while two monkeys followed them “nibbling their buttocks.” (Pg. 69) He thought the girls were in danger so he shot both monkeys. After killing the monkeys he found out they were actually the ladies lovers. Candide thinks Cacambo is actually mocking him but Cacambo says the following “Why should you find it so strange that in some parts of the world monkeys obtain ladies favours? They are partly human, just as I am partly Spanish.” (Pg. 70) As I read this I was amazed, it was so absurd so random but then again its satire.
There are many myths of evolution, the most famous one is that we actually have evolved and our descendants are monkeys. Recent studies have proved that according to the theory of evolution humans and monkeys have a common ancestry, so Candide is not so far of from the truth. I like comparing this myths of evolution to the book because maybe Voltaire is also mocking humans in a sense that we are still animals like the famous philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche used to say we are still animals the only thing that has changed is that we are in some terms more advanced. Or maybe he is saying men where such brutes at the time that anyone could have mistaken them for monkeys even Candide.
At first I found it awkward that monkeys were the ladies lovers, although Candide also has a satire tone so it could be a hyperbole. You could interpret that in many ways seeing that it is a satire it has all its characteristics; it is a hyperbole because I have heard myths of zoophilia although I think its a hyperbole because there are messed up people in the world but I think saying the monkeys were actually the woman's lovers is a total exaggeration! I think he is mocking people that actually suffer from zoophilia and he is mocking that women were so desperate in those days because men where total brutes that their only option was recurring to monkeys, how absurd can that actually be? But at the same time its also ironic how so many men fought over women till the point of actually killing them and here are two ladies running after monkeys. I think Voltaire is a genius he meets all the expectative in an entertaining novel, and he links together many topics, all concerning satire making it hilarious and entertaining.
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