Candide or All for the Best The Optimist or Optimism begins with a young man Candide who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism or simply optimism by his mentor Professor Pangloss The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle followed by Candides slow painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world Voltaire concludes with Candide if not rej...