Streets of Gold: Voltaire’s Candide and the Heavenly Nature of El Dorado

 In Voltaire’s satirical novel Candide, the scholar Pangloss professes Earth as the “best of all possible worlds” (2). The statement becomes something of a catchphrase and the center of Pangloss’ philosophy. Candide’s journey, however, reveals a broken and violent world plagued by war and corruption. Candide and his companions meet trouble everywhere they go. Pangloss firmly believes that the world could not possibly be any different, and certainly not any better; he says that everything happens exactly as it is meant to and that changing the course of the world is impossible (12-13). Despite Pangloss’ philosophy, Candide and his valet Cacambo discover a country where war, corruption, and violence seemingly do not exist. Everything that is considered valuable in the rest of the world is mere dust and stone in this hidden country, and its people are perpetually cheerful and welcoming. The city of El Dorado is in many ways a surface parallel to heaven, but beneath that surface parallel is an even deeper connection and proof that a world of violence and hatred is, in fact, never a high standard. 

Upon arriving in El Dorado, Candide and Cacambo encounter a group of children playing a game called quoits. The pieces they are using are made of gold, emeralds, and rubies (43). Candide and Cacambo immediately assume that the children are the sons of the king, when in reality they are commoners. Later, a hostel host refers to the jewels as the “pebbles of our highways,” paralleling the heavenly streets of gold (44). In using such an obvious parallel, Voltaire elevates El Dorado infinitely above the rest of the world and proves its wealth. Beneath that parallel, however, a deeper significance connects El Dorado to Pangloss. Ever since Candide was banished from Thunder-ten-tronckh, he has been penniless and miserable; Pangloss assures him that his life is exactly as it should be. In El Dorado, the ground is literally made of wealth. If Candide were to take even a small amount of dirt out of the city, he would be one of the richest men in the world. However, while in El Dorado, those “precious” stones are valueless. El Dorado is superior in its materials, but its people do not consider themselves wealthy. Rather, they consider themselves happy. They are comfortable, they are well cared-for, and they have very few material desires. The people of El Dorado seem to place their value in life and happiness rather than materials. Thus, Voltaire negates Pangloss’ philosophy that misery is unavoidable and acceptable, rather proving that joy in life is dependent upon a person’s outlook.

El Dorado’s king is also a point of interest and a noticeable heavenly parallel. The king’s wealth is not quantifiable. Even the materials that his palace is made of cannot be described; they can only be viewed as having a “prodigious superiority… over those pebbles and sand that we call gold and precious stones” (47). That description alone seems to parallel the throne of God and the New Jerusalem, but the description of the king himself carries the true meaning of the passage. It is custom in El Dorado not to bow down to the king or approach him on one’s knees, but rather to embrace him as one would embrace a friend. When Candide and Cacambo do so, the king “receive[s] them with all the grace imaginable and politely ask[s] them to dinner” (48). The king’s attitude is not one of superiority, but one of friendship. Up to this point in the story, Candide’s experiences with kings and noblemen have been overwhelmingly negative (3, 31, 37). Even the king of the Bulgarians, who pardons him from his “crimes” against the Bulgarian military, merely prolongs his suffering by not granting him his request to be put out of his mortally wounded misery (6). In stark contrast to most of the world’s leadership, the king of El Dorado treats Candide and Cacambo with love and respect, as if they are a part of the king’s own household. Also worthy of note is the king’s equal treatment of Candide, previously a prince, and Cacambo, a mere valet. Again, Voltaire proves that Pangloss is incorrect that an aloof worldly king is the best of all possible kings.

The final significant parallel between El Dorado and heaven is the description of El Dorado’s religion. The people worship only one God, they praise him all day, and they are all in agreement about him. One of the citizens of El Dorado tells Candide that “we have nothing to ask [God] for; he has given us all we need, and we thank him without ceasing” (46). Heaven is similarly described as a kingdom whose citizens lack nothing. The significance of this parallel comes from the fact that El Dorado is still just an earthly city in many other respects. There are still rich and poor, there are still young and old, and there is still death, although people live longer in El Dorado than they do in other parts of the world (45). However, everyone in El Dorado is content with his own life, and he is infinitely grateful that he lacks nothing he truly needs. In addition, everyone in the city is “all of the same opinion” (47). The people of El Dorado have learned to understand and agree with one another, and as a result, they experience no conflict. Although complete agreement is impossible in our current fallen world, it is a standard that we would do well to strive for. We should always be willing to listen to others’ points of view, even if they conflict with our own, and then draw our conclusions. Pangloss, on the other hand, praises a world where differences in worldview could result in a person being slandered for his love interest (37) or even eaten (40-41). El Dorado proves a much better standard to strive for than the current situation in the rest of the world. 

The surface-level parallel between El Dorado and heaven makes way for a much deeper connection between Pangloss’ philosophy and the lifestyle of truly good people. In many societies that Candide travels through, wealth is prized above all else. In El Dorado, materials are plentiful, but they are given no value. In most of the world, violence and greed reign supreme, making a few people powerful and the rest of humanity miserable. In El Dorado, a content mindset and a loving attitude create an environment where no man considers himself to be at a loss. In both the world of Candide and our modern society, disagreement causes extreme conflict. In El Dorado, conflict is eliminated because the people have learned to come to an agreement on everything. Rather than accepting our world as it is and trusting that it cannot be any better, we should arm ourselves with a cheerful mindset and a loving attitude. By doing so, we might not be able to create complete agreement, but we can easily foster a more understanding mindset in the people around us.

Works Cited

Voltaire, Francois, et al. Candide: Zadig and Selected Stories. Signet, 2009.