- Alternate Aesop Interpretation: What exactly does "we must cultivate our garden" mean? Does it advocate isolationism, giving up hope for the world at large and withdrawing from it to focus on our personal "gardens"? Or does "our garden" symbolize the whole world, with Voltaire advocating practical work for positive social change? For that matter, is that final line really meant to be the Aesop of the novel or not?
- Shallow Parody:
- Martin is called a "Manichean" scholar, but his only philosophy is extreme, absolute pessimism. Actual Manicheanism was a dualistic religion; it taught that the world is engaged in a perpetual struggle between good and evil that would be decided at the end of time.
- Pangloss is meant to be an unflattering Leibniz stand-in, but some have stated that Voltaire has oversimplified the "best of all possible worlds" and reduced it into a mantra.
- Values Dissonance: Voltaire expresses blatant antisemitism without irony.
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