50 pages • 1 hour read
Zadig
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Essay Topics
Does Zadig find the answers to his questions about fate and divine justice in Jesrad? Why or why not?
Track Zadig’s character arc: How do he and his beliefs change or stay the same through his trials and tribulations?
Do you think that Zadig’s good deeds eventually righted his fortune in Chapter 19, or is the happy ending a fluke of fate that has nothing to do with his actions?
Does Zadig have a discernible moral? If so, how does the text support or complicate that moral? If not, is there paradoxically a lesson in there being no lesson?
Throughout the story, characters have their roles reversed or must shed their identities. How does Voltaire use these literary techniques to develop his central themes?
How is Zadig an expression of enlightenment ideals? Is Zadig the epitome of the rational enlightenment man?
Trace the allegorical pieces of Zadig. Is the book expressly a veiled polemic against the Catholic Church in 18th-century Europe, or something broader?
In Chapter 18, Jesrad declares that people judge everything without understanding anything. Does Zadig’s story support this declaration?
Zadig consistently opposes commonsense to philosophy. What does he mean by philosophy and how is it different from commonsense?
Is Zadig as moral as he appears? Analyze how Voltaire uses point of view, narration, and other literary devices to emphasize or complicate Zadig’s morality.
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