What happens in Chapter 17 of Candide?
Exhausted and nearly starving after their escape from the Oreillons, Candide and Cacambo float down an unfamiliar river on a makeshift raft. They eventually pass through a rocky tunnel and emerge into a wide, sunlit valley. The scenery is remarkable: the riverbanks shine with gold and precious stones, which children use as toys. The two travelers arrive at a village where the locals wear luxurious fabrics, and an inn offers an incredible feast, all provided without charge. When Candide tries to pay with gold nuggets he found on the road, the innkeeper just laughs; in El Dorado, those stones are considered worthless gravel. The meal itself is a humorous display of excess: countless courses, flowing fine wine, and continuous music. Thanks to Cacambo's understanding of South American languages, he communicates with the villagers and discovers that the whole kingdom functions on principles completely foreign to European norms—abundance is common, scarcity doesn't exist, and money serves no purpose. The chapter ends with Candide wondering if this hidden paradise is indeed the land where "all goes well," reflecting Pangloss's optimistic philosophy, now challenged by what seems to be a genuine utopia.
Analysis
Voltaire uses El Dorado as a kind of philosophical mirror, and Chapter 17 is where that mirror is first presented. The craft of this chapter relies on systematic inversion: every European value that Candide holds — the value of gold, the importance of commerce, the scarcity that fuels ambition — is quietly undermined by the village's joyful indifference. Voltaire's writing here is intentionally flat and descriptive, imitating the tone of a traveler's report, which makes the absurdity hit harder; the narrator remains unfazed, forcing the reader to react.
The children's game with emeralds and rubies serves as the chapter's most powerful image — a single detail that undermines the entire rationale behind colonial exploitation. Europe has killed and enslaved for these stones; here, they are merely toys. The inn sequence takes this inversion into farce, with the innkeeper's laughter acting as Voltaire's own at the expense of commercial civilization.
Additionally, there's a notable tonal shift. The novel's unrelenting violence temporarily subsides; the chapter feels almost peaceful. Voltaire uses this tranquility strategically — El Dorado's perfection will make Candide's eventual decision to leave it even more damning of human nature. Language plays a key role in this utopia: it's Cacambo, the practical mestizo servant, not the philosophically educated Candide, who can actually communicate here, serving as a subtle joke at the expense of European education. Pangloss's well-known formula — "all is for the best" — is mirrored in Candide's amazement, but here, the optimism is, for once, grounded in reality, which only intensifies the satire.
Key quotes from Chapter 17
“They saw some children covered with tattered brocade playing at quoits on the outskirts of the town; our travellers from the other world amused themselves by looking at them; their quoits were large round pieces, yellow, red, and green, which cast a singular lustre.”
Candide and Cacambo first observe El Dorado's children at play, unknowingly witnessing gold and gemstones treated as worthless toys — the chapter's central image of inverted value.
“Cacambo asked the landlord what the reckoning came to. The landlord burst out laughing and asked them if they took him for a fool.”
At the inn, Candide's attempt to pay with gold nuggets is met with incredulous laughter, crystallising Voltaire's satire of European mercantile assumptions.
“This surely is the country where all goes well; for there must obviously be such a place.”
Candide's exclamation directly echoes Pangloss's optimistic philosophy, but here Voltaire grounds it — briefly and ironically — in observable reality rather than empty doctrine.
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- El Dorado
- A legendary hidden city of fabulous wealth; in the novel it is a utopian land where gold and jewels are worthless, people are happy, and there is no religious persecution or greed.