I take the garden state to be the utopian society. A place in which everything is perfectly perfect, amazingly amazing and happens for the best.
Candide left the garden state in search for something better. I think that it is part of humans to naturally want something more. we are constantly striving for something bigger and better than what we have. Us, just like Candide, are inclined to always search for more.
In the story El Dorado represented the utopian society. However, despite the optimal life El Dorado could provide, Candide left because he felt he could gain riches in another place. I think in real life people have the opportunity and chance to live happily and in an utopian/garden state but chose not to. Instead of having everything well and happy they get greedy for a fame, fortune and happiness that suppasses others. Our greed overcomes us and determines our actions. In real life we abandon the garden state because we think we can find something better.
As we discussed in class, the idea of a garden state is subjective . Everyone has their own opinion of what utopia looks like and different ideas on how to achieve this society. Although, I wonder if this utopian/garden state is actually real. How do we know that this (the world we live in now, the way it is) isn't the utopian state and isn't the best of all possible worlds? I question if we are being greedy and fantasizing about a garden state better than the one we live in now. Maybe this (the world and life we live now) is El Dorado and this is as good as its going to get. By striving for another better world we are leaving our own El Dorado in order to get something better. something better that doesn't actually exist.
Maybe this is the garden state. This is as good as it gets and us as a part of human nature want something more. I don't know if the garden state actually exist but I question rather or that if it did, would be satisfied with it? would it be enough? or would we leave our El Dorado in search of a better life?
In the end, Candide did realize his own garden state. It took a very long time and many unfortunate events, but he got there. I think in real life we need to take a page from the book. We are all Candide in the sense that we'lre always looking for something better. I wonder what it would take (hopefully nothing copared to what Candide went through) before we realize that we need to tend to our garden and be conetent with what we have.
In the end, Candide did realize his own garden state. It took a very long time and many unfortunate events, but he got there. I think in real life we need to take a page from the book. We are all Candide in the sense that we'lre always looking for something better. I wonder what it would take (hopefully nothing copared to what Candide went through) before we realize that we need to tend to our garden and be conetent with what we have.
Excellent Clark. We need to tend our garden because this may be the only one we get…we should quit looking for a better one. The grass isn't greener, it's just different grass with the same problems-- weeds, want of water, too much or too little sun, etc.
ReplyDeleteI too believe that the garden state does not exist. It is just something that we live our lives searching for. It is the reason why we keep going everyday. I think it's true that humans are never quite satisfied with what we have and will spend all our waking hours to find something as far-fetched and magical as the Garden of Eden.
ReplyDeleteI think that what you've written toward the end describes, in part, what Candide was doing before he got to his farm. He was constantly trying to find or to see a better world than the one he was in and it was only until he stopped searching that he became content.
ReplyDeleteI kind of agree with there not being a true garden state and maybe it is just me leaning towards Pangloss' philosophy but i believe that wherever it is we end up will be our own form of the garden state and it may not be perfect but it'll be good enough that we choose to settle.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I noticed in the book was that even though Candide was in his "garden state" he wasn't extroardinarlily happy. It was just kinda normal, rather than utopian. I think if it were up to Candide, he would take Cunegonde and the gang to the real utopia, el dorado.
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