ENG 102 Candide Extended Research Essay – Social Class and Racial Struggles Throughout the World

Social Class and Racial Struggles Throughout the World

No society in this world is perfect. Some try its hardest to perfect their nation but, it is just not realistic. Many nations suffer from racial and social oppression. Racism in America has been one of the nations biggest issues and still is today. Also, there is many countries that still face racism as well. Racism and classism is shown throughout “The Other Wes Moore”, “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions”, and “Candide”. Classism effects many nations around the world. Many governments set up laws that help the rich and negatively affect the poor. The people who really need help are not given the help they need to be successful and they are stuck at where they started because of it, outlining class struggles in countries abroad. In addition, classism in Victorian England demonstrated how many people were stuck in social class, especially lower class citizens. The upper class were families of royalty which, usually stayed royalty as it was hereditary in most positions. Lower class families could not be politicians or marry royalty; the lower class worked hard, struggled for what they needed, and stuck in lower class during their lifespan. Voltaire’s “Candide”, Edwin Abbott’s “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions”, and Wes Moore’s “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates”, effectively illustrates class and racial struggles throughout the world.

In Voltaire’s novella “Candide”, he displayed a good amount of classism and racism. He shows an example of classism in the first chapter when, Candide gets caught kissing Cunegonde and banished from Westphalia. Candide, a man of lower social class than Cunegonde, is not supposed to be kissing or in any type of relationship with Cunegonde due to his social status. Also, the Baron, who was Cunegonde’s brother, insulted by the fact that Candide intended to marry Cundegonde because Candide’s social status did not meet Cunegonde’s status and was not worthy of her love. In addition, Candide later had found a place of no social hierarchy; a utopian society where everyone was equal and money served no purpose. Racism is also very evident throughout the text. Racism is one of the most degrading things a human can endure in their lifetime. An example of racism in “Candide” is when Candide saw the two “monkeys” chasing two women and he shot and killed them. Candide thought the monkeys were trying to hurt the women but lovers in which, Candide seemed oddly confused about. Those monkeys were not really monkeys but, instead were people of color. In addition, the Old Woman tells her story to Candide about the war in Morocco and she believes that Europeans do not indulge in any of the horrific acts that Africa indulges in such as, lust for women and fighting for valuables. Voltaire asserts the Old Woman’s belief that, “liquid fire that pulses through these people” (Voltaire 24).

Voltaire, a enlightenment philosopher during the Enlightenment period, got into many cultural issues in the world. The Enlightenment period was a period where many people thought more about what was right and wrong instead of what tradition is and what people were told was right. Voltaire uses the character of Candide and Pangloss as examples to portray individuals that have the optimism of good in the world, just like other philosophers of the Enlightenment period. “Candide” is written and set during the Enlightenment era and displays many ideas that philosophers during that time expressed. Voltaire used “Candide” to get ideas through to people around the world and help express them in ways that many could not see themselves. Robert Mitchell, a professor in the English department at Duke University, iterates William Petty’s ideas of during the early Enlightenment era that, “In some of Petty’s examples, maximizing a value—e.g., wealth or military power—depended on determining the absolute minimum of something that everyone needs, such as food, or something that the vast majority of people can and should do, such as labor”. Petty gets into the science of politics and asserts that wealth and power depended on if everyone had the bare minimum such as food. Petty expressed his idea for nations to want to maximize their power only if they had the minimum of what it needs to survive. Mitchell also illustrates William Sharpe’s ideas in his work in the Enlightenment illustrating, “Sharpe contended that genius was not implanted by nature, but was the result of circumstance and education … Sharpe contended that understanding how genius emerged would allow a polity to increase its number of geniuses”. Sharpe’s ideas during the Enlightenment help to show that instead of thinking everything is how it is in this world because of God and human nature, it is the result of circumstance and situation, and in this case education. Getting the people of the 18^th century to understand what most of these philosophers meant was to write stories to portray the ideas that they expressed. Social problems are evident during this time and still are today but, the people before and during the Enlightenment era had not yet been open to newer meanings of life and what was right and wrong. Voltaire greatly shows all of his Enlightenment ideas through “Candide”, especially classism and racism, by giving many examples of situations where Candide acted in ways he knew most people did during the time and ideas that Candide and Pangloss both felt was right in the world. A strong example that Voltaire uses is when the king of Eldorado implies, “I simply cant understand, said he, the passion you Europeans have for your yellow mud; but take all you want, and much good it do you” (Voltaire 43). Voltaire uses this as an example to express the idea that many Europeans were solely focused on wealth and their obsession for it that they do not understand the need for it when they have all the good that they need; in this case a classless equal utopian society of Eldorado. In addition, Voltaire’s use of the black men’s portrayal as monkeys in the eyes of Candide was not for a random reason. Mary L. Bellhouse, professor at Providence College, illustrates that, “French visual culture represented black males in two main ways, as exoticized servants in metropolitan France and as plantation slaves in the colonies”. Voltaire, who is French degrades them to the level of monkeys because in France, that is how they are viewed amongst them. Bellhouse also argues that, “On the other hand, he is simultaneously constituted as inferior to the white man through the use of additional signifiers that infantilize him and limit his power”. She gives a deep visualization to how blacks are portrayed to Europeans during the time and still to this day, some of these ideas stand in the views of many Europeans.  Voltaire, Sharpe, and Petty all contributed to the great era of Enlightenment and helped to open a lot of close minded people’s minds during the 18^th century.

During the Victorian era, the ideas of the Enlightenment must have not sat well in the minds of those in power in England. England contained a society that involved both social hierarchy and racism. “Candide” and “Flatland” both portray the classism that was in Europe in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The social ranking in England during the Victorian era showed how people were stuck essentially, in that class their whole life, good or bad. If you were born as royalty, you would always be royalty. If you were born into a low class family like a farmers family, you will always be lower class. Farmers could not become politicians or kings during this time. It was virtually impossible with the way the laws and society worked. In “Flatland” a event occurred where a woman of higher social status than a man is fooled into sex and marriage and Abbott emphasizes, “by an almost inconceivable fatuity and neglect of ordinary precautions on the part of the relations of the bride—he succeeded in consummating the marriage. The unhappy girl committed suicide on discovering the fraud to which she had been subjected” (Abbott 39). This event illustrates how the woman could not live with herself knowing she was fooled and married someone who was not worthy of her and also, how society would have viewed it too. It is a similar situation to where Candide is banished from Westphalia for kissing Cunegonde but, these two wanted each other they just could not have each other due to their social differences. In a article written by Liza Picard, a English historian, specializing in the Victorian era, outlined  events of the Victorian era by asserting that, “A 70-year-old seamstress with failing sight was told to go away and find herself some work because ‘she was young enough to work’. If a family was admitted, all its members would be separated, and might never see each other again”. This event illustrates how old the woman is in need of work and the ruthlessness of the government over such a little event as such. Picard also illustrates, “Workhouse food was just enough to keep the inmates from starvation. They were clothed, and even, occasionally, washed. The children were entitled to some elementary education, but this was often ignored by the workhouse keeper”. The people in power barely wanted to feed the people who were helping them stay in power and treated as inferior to them. Also, the children in some instances receive little education which, does not help them educate themselves and progress into individuals with knowledge to become something of high social ranking. Women in Flatland and during the Victorian era both were essentially treated as items and had little value to society. Tola Odubajo, a professor of political science at University of Lagos, emphasizes that, “society elevated men above women in all ramifications. The woman had no public roles, her place was the home, especially to satisfy the husband’s ego, bear children and nurture them. The main issues of the Victorian era were; exploitation, subordination, oppression and relegation”. Women are apart of the classism the Victorian era because they are stuck having no huge role and have to adhere to men; that being her sole purpose in life. Furthermore, Odubajo emphasizes that, “Auguste Comte, the sociologist argued that women were best described as “objects of veneration”. As a whole, women were objects to all of society, low or high class. Today, many changes have occurred and there is less classism and racism in England than it was during the Victorian era.

Classism still exists today and has existed for as long as many governments have been in place. Today in America, there is clear evidence of classism. The three main classes contain the lower class, working middle class, and the upper class. The upper class and middle class contrast greatly; for example, a member of the upper class may be a CEO of a business making six to seven figures but, a member of the working class contains a individual below the average annual income struggling to make ends meet, living in impoverished areas. Wes Moore illustrates examples of classism in “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates”. Both Wes Moores lived in impoverished areas and members of the lower class in Baltimore City. The author Wes had family support and moved to places to help him in the future. Other Wes was stuck in Baltimore and faced more harsh realities but, both had hardships. Americans in the lower class, particularly the Wes Moores, lacked opportunities to better their lives. Wes Moore acknowledges, “My father entered the hospital seeking help. But his face was unshaven, his clothes disheveled, his name unfamiliar, his address not in an affluent area. The hospital … and basically told him to fend for himself. Now my mother had to plan his funeral” (Moore 15). Wes’ father suffered from a rare disease that could have been treated if it was not misdiagnosed. His father did not get any help from the hospital because he looked like he could not afford it or did not have health insurance. Any famous person or person of high ranking would have got help immediately, no questions asked assuming they can pay for the treatment no matter what but, Wes’ father did not get any help at all. This event emphasizes classism in impoverished areas because it shows that even you need help, you may not receive it based on social status in which, the hospital determined when they seen the way he dressed and his address in an non-affluent neighborhood. The same type of situation would have happened in both Victorian England and definitely the Enlightenment era because blacks were inferior to the Caucasian race. Blake Allan, professor at Purdue University, of Educational Studies, argues that researchers have developed the theory that many college students encounter citational, interpersonal, and institutionalized classism. Citational classism is stereotyping people of the lower class like assuming they have low intelligence. Interpersonal classism involves behaviors those from lower class backgrounds such as, activities that not all students can afford. Institutionalized classism includes institutional structures that purposefully excludes those with lower class privilege; for example, encouraging studying abroad but providing little financial support (488). His article outlines how classism is in many places of our society, even in places you go to try and advance your life. Citational classism relates to the classism that Wes’ father faced because they both involve discrimination. Wes’ father was discriminated based on his address and clothes; Citational Classism discriminates based on a students lower social class background. Allan also states that the Langhout 2009 study asserts that, “findings indicate that while people from all social class backgrounds may be exposed to citational forms of classism, there may be more variation in terms of exposure to interpersonal and institutionalized classism, with students from lower social class backgrounds experiencing these with greater frequency”. While all students may be exposed to citational classism, the lower class experiences more interpersonal and institutionalized classism, giving them more of a disadvantage to those of higher class backgrounds. Racism also occurs today in America quite often, even today. Violet Showers Johnson, a professor in African American studies at Texas A&M University, acknowledges that, “Under the Giuliani administration, people of color experienced New York City as a racialized police state . . . . a site in which bodies of color, particularly those belonging to the working and immigrant classes are marked for demonization, criminalization and discipline by dint of their phenotype”. New York City, a place where Wes Moore lived at, experienced a lot of racial degrading activities in the 1990s. There was a high crime rate in New York City during the time and most of the crime was believed to be from African Americans. Racial criminalization leads to harassing blacks by law enforcement, solely based off the fact that they are black. Baltimore also experienced this after riots about Freddy Gray’s death in 2015. Freddy Gray who was a African American man in Baltimore City, a place of high crime and mainly blacks, killed by police officers who demonized and criminalized him and eventually mishandled a simple situation that led to his death. If he had been a white man in the same situation, same record, he would still be alive today. Racism that many blacks face today, occurred in times of the Victorian era and Enlightenment period. Candide killing those two black men in “Candide” is still a situation that would surprise no one today. The world has came far as a whole in the past couple centuries accepting those of color but, there is still a lot that needs to be fixed to make this world better for all.

Class and racial struggles are illustrated in Voltaire’s “Candide”, Edwin Abbott’s “Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions”, Wes Moore’s “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates”, and throughout the world. Racial issues with blacks still occur throughout the world but are striving for equality every day. Social status issues occur less than it has in the past but is still occurring today and occurring in less obvious ways. Many people experience both classism and racism in their life and have no control over who they were born as. The goal as human beings should be to have a less violent, equal society in terms of class and race where everyone can prevail if they work hard enough to do such. Making more strides day by day using laws and understanding peoples backgrounds to stop acts of classism and racism can help the world become such a better place for all the live in it.

 

Works Cited

Allan, Blake A., et al. “Outcomes of Social Class and Classism in First- and                       Continuing- Generation College Students.” Journal of Counseling Psychology,                                 vol. 63, no. 4, July 2016, pp. 487–496.

Mitchel, Robert. “Enlightenment Biopolitics: Population and the Growth of Genius.” Eighteenth Century: Theory & Interpretation (University of Pennsylvania Press), vol.59, no. 4, Winter 2018, pp. 405-427

Bellhouse, Mary L. “Candide Shoots the Monkey Lovers: Representing Black Men in Eighteenth-Century French Visual Culture.”  Political Theory, vol. 34, no. 6, 2006, pp. 741–784.

Picard, Liza. “The Working Class and the Poor.” British Library, British Library, 4 October 2009, https://www.bl.uk/victorian-britain/articles/the-working-classes-and-the-poor

ODUBAJO, Tola, and Dayo ODUBAJO. “Gender Prejudice in the Victorian Era: An Elucidation of Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles.’” Gender & Behaviour, vol. 15, no. 2, May 2017, pp. 9224–9234.

JOHNSON, VIOLET SHOWERS. “When Blackness Stings: African and Afro-Caribbean Immigrants, Race, and Racism in Late Twentieth-Century America.” Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 36, no. 1, Fall 2016, pp. 31–62.

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