Candide (Chapters 16-30)

Summary
Chapter 16

Candide and Cacambo end up in a country with no roads. There they see two naked women running and they are being pursued by two monkeys who are biting their legs. Candide kills the monkeys because he wants them to assist them in their endeavor. They women instead of being happy and praising their savior cry over the dead monkeys.Candide finds out from Cacambo that the monkeys were the husbands of the women. In the morning Cacambo and Candide are surrounded by the natives of the country called Biglugs. They start to rejoice because they mistake Candide to be a Jesuit but Cacambo explains he only wore the clothes to escape from them. The Biglugs show Cacambo and Candide  hospitality and take them to the edge of their territory. Candide  has a strong faith in the perfection of the world.

Chapter 17

Cacambo and Candide continue to travel but their horses die and they run out of food. They find an abandoned canoe and they make their way down the river. Their canoe smashes against some rocks after a day of traveling.At a village they find children playing with emeralds, rubies, and diamonds. When the village schoolmaster calls the children, they leave the jewels on the ground. Candide tries to give the jewels to the schoolmaster, but the schoolmaster  throws them back to the ground. They visit the inn in the village which looks like a European palace where they find people who can speak Cacambo’s native language. Cacambo and Candide eat a grand meal and try to pay for it with two large gold pieces they picked up off the ground. The landlord laughs at them for trying to give him “pebbles.” Moreover, the government maintains all inns for free. Candide believes that this is the place in the world where everything is for the best which connects back to what he had learned from Dr. Pangloss.

Chapter 18

Cacambo and Candide go to see the village sage, a 172-year-old man. The sage explains that his people have vowed never to leave their kingdom, which is called Eldorado. High mountains surround the kingdom, so no outsiders can get in, making Eldorado safe from European conquests. They also have a God whom they thank every day for giving them what they need. No religious persecution occurs because everyone agrees about everything.
Cacambo and Candide visit the king. They embrace him according to customs explained by one of his servants, and such familiarity and equality of address with a monarch shocks them. Candide asks to see the courts and prisons and learns there are none. Rather, there are schools devoted to the sciences and philosophy.
After a month, Candide decides that he cannot stay in Eldorado as long as Cunegonde is not there. He decides to take as many Eldorado “pebbles” with him as he can. The king considers the plan foolish, but sets his architects to work building a machine to lift Candide, Cacambo, and 102 swift sheep loaded down with jewels out of the deep valley. Candide hopes to pay Don Fernando for Cunegonde and buy a kingdom for himself.

Candide (Chapters 1-6)

Summary

Chapter 1

The book starts off with Candide living in a nice castle with a lot of wealth. He is one of the most prestigious people in that village and had been brought up there. He also admired a very brilliant philosopher known as Dr. Pangloss who taught Candide and believed that whatever happens, happens for the better of mankind even if it is human suffering. There was also a beautiful woman by the name of Lady Cunegonde whose beauty mesmerized Candide. One day they started kissing and were about to engage in intercourse when Baron Thunderten-tronckh, the owner of the castle, caught them in the act. He drove Candide out of the castle and out of the town.

Chapter 2

Candide wandered into a town called Waldberghofftrarbkdikdorff where some two men took him and bought him food saying that they would like nothing in return. After eating and drinking he was bound in shackles and taken away. They called him, "The Hero of the Bulgars." Candide was confused because he did not understand why he was being called a hero. He went for a walk but then was captured by the Bulgars and they offered to beat him or shoot him. In the course of the beating he said he couldn't take it anymore so he said they should shoot him but the King of the Bulgars stopped them and said that Candide was ignorant of worldly matters.

Chapter 3

 The Bulgars went to spread carnage in towns. Candide was scared at the site of what he saw so he fled to another village which was also in carnage. Candide met a good, unbaptized Anabaptist who was kind unlike the other people in town who were mocking Candide. He took Candide into his home and fed, bathed and offered to teach him to manufacture fabrics. He met a beggar the next day.

Chapter 4 

 Candide met Dr.Pangloss who was now a beggar after some misfortunes befell him and the others at the castle. Candide to him to the Anabaptist's stable and there Dr. Pangloss told him what had happened. He told him Bulgars had attacked the Castle and that Lady Cunegonde and Baron Thunderten-tronckh had been killed during the raid. Candide  begged James the Anabaptist to take Dr. Pangloss in and he agreed. Pangloss lost an eye. James needed to go to Lisbon for business so Candide and Dr. Pangloss followed him.

Chapter 5 

 There was an earthquake and the ship ship had been crucially damaged. A frenzied sailor who tried to punch James the Anabaptist missed, slipped and was falling off the ship. James helped him back on but in the process fell into the sea. Candide, Dr. Pangloss and the frenzied sailor made it to the shore of Lisbon. The earthquake had affected that area also and Candide and Dr. Pangloss did what they could to help and were rewarded with a meal. During the meal the King gets offended when Dr. Pangloss says everything is for the best.

Chapter 6 

Dr. Pangloss and Candide were arrested and to be put to death. Pangloss was hanged but when it was Candide's turn the earth shook again. Injured and walking away, a woman said to him, "Cheer up, my son. Follow me."

Quotation

Reaction

Devil in the White City

Summary

The book introduced a man who is a famous architect around the world. He is stuck in a room on a cruise and is unable to leave because his feet hurt. He constructed the Columbian World Fair which celebrated the discovery of America. It was a magnificent sight for all where diffrent cultures came together. Despite all the fun that people were having, there was a murder that took place your so so some bad and evil things that happened, there was a murder. It starts talking about how woman from different places from different world come to the fair and how they are amazed at what they see. the book then goes on to talk about different things that kill humanity which is going up to something that they never heard of before, a serial killer. 

Reaction

Quotation

"The prolonging of a man's life doesn't interest ne when he's done his work and done it pretty well."

Reaction to review

I agree with the reviewer of 127 hours. This reviewer likes the movie a lot and the way the movie was made like when he said the director made the movie more energetic instead of depressing by casting James Franco as Aron Ralston. He says that the director, Danny Boyle, goes after painful and unpleasant subjects but somehow makes it energetic  When the reviewer also says, "Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the film leaves you with the impression of having lived, vicariously but intensely, through something whose meaning is both profound and elusive." This is true because after seeing Aron resorting to drinking his own urine, cracking his bone and cutting off his arm with a little swiss knife, slowly you will see how better your life is. You will have an arm while Aron Ralston would not.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (201-268)

Summary
This next section is continuing with Lola, Oscar's sister who went to stay over at La Inca's place in Santo Domingo. It's her last day there before her mother comes to pick her up and take her back to America. When her mother saw her she expected her to say that she looked beautiful but she did not. Lola thought she still liked only Oscar. When they got on the plane to America Lola started to cry, I believe she felt loved and and enjoyed staying with La Inca. Her mother help her hand throughout the whole plane ride and even defended her when someone told her to tell Lola to stop crying.
Quotation
She put her hand on mine and left it there.                                                                  
Reaction
I chose this quote because I think it was very emotionally. I thought this because when the mother saw her she still didn't show any love to her daughter but she comforted her when she was crying on the plane.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (134-201)

Summary

Quotation

Reaction

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (67-134)

Summary
The second section of TBWLOW has the speaker recalling Oscar's mothers teen years in Baní with her aunt known as La Inca. Beli's parents died when she was young.The speaker talks about how fortunate Beli is for a girl living in a third world country. She has everything any girl in such a country could dream of but yet it looks as if she is not satisfied. It looks like she wants something else in life maybe something that has more value to her than anyone else.
Quotation
"
Reaction