Wednesday, 12 November 2025

Positivity of Pangloss & Pollyanna

In Voltaire's satire "Candide", he satirises the Leibnizian philosophy of "All things happen for the best in this best of all possible worlds", using Dr. Pangloss, the tutor of Candide, as the mouthpiece. Even after all possible misfortunes happen to them, Pangloss stubbornly repeats his dictum, but Candide adds pragmatically, "But let us cultivate our garden."

In Eleanor Porter's "Pollyanna", the eponymous character, is a little orphan girl who comes to live with her aunt. Her late pastor father, beset with poverty, found about 800 "Rejoicing texts" in the Bible, & taught his daughter to look for the silver lining of every cloud. Pollyanna goes about teaching this "Glad Game" to all in the town. But when she herself is nearly paralysed after an accident, she nearly loses faith but is saved by a medical breakthrough, restoring her belief in her "Glad Game."

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