El Dorado s Candide The Utopia That Wasn t. Candide

El Dorado in Candide: The Utopia That Wasn t Candide was a novel published in 1759 by Francois-Marie Arouet, known best by the pseudonym â€Å"Voltaire†. It was written primarily to satirize German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz s â€Å"theodicy†, which was a philosophy Leibniz designed to explain why evil exists in the world. He maintained that we live in the â€Å"best of all possible worlds†, an idea Voltaire dismantled in Candide with biting attacks on philosophy, religion, politics, and social order. One of the most unusual displays of satire he invoked was in the novel s description of El Dorado, which was apparently a utopian society. However, Voltaire rejects that ideal, not only with open satire but with subtext, and this is why Candide ultimately decides to leave. â€Å"They were obliged to creep along, from rock to rock, for the space of a league, till at length a spacious plain presented itself to their sight. This place was bounded by a chain of ina ccessible mountains† (125). This is Candide and Cacombo s first glimpse of El Dorado. The near impossibility of access to it is intriguing, because while it may protect the inhabitants from the outside world and the pollution of their society, it also means that egress is also just as difficult. This is proven when they decide to leave, and the vast undertaking it requires to get them out. Not everyone wanted to stay there after arrival; the Incas left to conquer other lands and Candide himself ends up wishing to leave. He