Explorers always wanted to find the “Golden City.” Of course, none of them did. In Candide, Voltaire describes a city that is equivalent to any “Golden City.” This world is the ideal world that almost anyone would like to live in. However, when Candide finds his “Golden City,” known as El Dorado, he leaves it. One might wonder why Candide left El Dorado, but there were many well justified reasons for Candide’s departure from the perfect world he was searching for. Candide gives several arguments for leaving El Dorado. Candide wants to find Cunegund, and he wants to be of higher status. In El Dorado, everyone has wealth; but if Candide leaves with some pebbles from El Dorado he can richer then the nobles in Europe. With these reasons in mind, Candide prepares for his departure from the perfect Utopia. The seemingly perfect Utopia is not that perfect for Candide, for there are a few things that Candide must have in his world that are not present in El Dorado. Candide was forced to leave his beautiful love, Cunegund. This was hard for Candide because he loved Cunegund very much. Candide could not be happy without Cunegund. He says, “I own, my friend (Cacambo), once more, that the castle where I was born is a mere nothing in comparison to the place where we now are; but still Miss Cunegund is not here (52).” All the riches in the world do not make up for the absence of Cunegund. Candide also realizes that in El Dorado he is nothing special. Almost everyone in El Dorado has the same wealth. Candide rationalized, “ If we remain here we shall only be as others are; whereas, if we return to our own world with only a dozen El Dorado sheep, loaded with the pebbles of this country, we shall be richer than all kings in Europe (52).” This logic would make sense to a lot of people. If one can live a normal life in one place and extraordinary life in another place, it makes sense tha...
