Ideology Tug-O-War

 After seeing the cruelness of real life in a criplled slave's eyes, a fierce naval battle and in almost all his journey and companion's tales, Candide seems to give up hope on his hopeful "Panglossian" optimism. Even though he declares this renunciation to the ideology that keeps him going and lets him sleep at night, he still protects it against Martin however it seems this is very forced and that he is just trying to hold on to the last thing he still nows, aside from Cunegonde. Leting go of this theory would be giving up on his quest to be as happy as he was in Westphalia, it would be giving up on Cunegonde and it would be caving in and letting the world and real life get the best of him.

 Candide has always taken a liking to victims of despair, the more the person has suffered the more he repescts them, he lets this people know about his theory only to hear them say it's nonsense based on their experience. It would seem Candide wants them to refute it on a subconcious level because he wants to be convinced that last bit since he is almost 100% sure it's ridiculous. When the naval battle unfolds infront of them and one of his sheep come back he throws it at Martin as proof of his theroy with a noticeable desire for him to refute it, and he does, he names the other poor sailors and passangers that died because of the Dutch's treachery, Candide does not argue his point beacuase he is convinced enough, however he still says he does't believe that man are mostly evil and that Pagloss was a crazy old man. Even though there is a part of him that still believes, mainly so he can remain optimist about Cunegonde, every thing that this ideology leads him to would be unsatisfactory since he doesnt fully believe in it. For instance if he does find Cunegonde he may not want her anymore.