"It was useless to declare his belief in free will and say he wanted neither"

What is "free will"? A punishment for getting us into hard situations and dilemmas? Or a gift for allowing us to choose what we want? It is hard sometimes to decide what it is that we want. Sometimes I'd even like somebody to makeup my mind for it, but I would never address free will as a punishment. And neither would Voltaire. Voltaire actually uses Candide, a satirical piece, to show his thoughts on society, especially free will. He verbally fought in the French Revolution, and this work was most probably one of his means to present his ideas to the public.

"'Your Excellency must excuse me... Free Will is consistent with Absolute Necessity, for it was ordained the we should be free,'" writes Voltaire on the fifth chapter of his book. By doing so, he is trying to convince the reader that free will is a basic right for everybody. During that time, people just did what the church and the monarchs wanted them to... anyone who went against them would be punished. Awful, right? But they were used to it, just like we're used to many of today's injustices. Yet, Voltaire chose to take a stand and show that there was another way. Something called "free will". He doesn't just put it as something that would be nice for  people. He chooses to portray it as something everybody needs, this way increasing potential support.

Voltaire not only shows his support for free will in direct way. In fact, he mostly uses satire to prove his points. There's a point in the story where the authorities kill a man for marrying his godmother, two Portuguese Jews for refusing to eat bacon, and Panglos and Candide are arrested for speaking and "listening intently." With this situation Voltaire criticizes the government and the lack of free will it allows. Of course it's an exaggeration, and this most likely did not happen back then. But it was a way to make the reader stop and maybe say "Wait a minute. This kind of does sound like the society I live in. There's so many things I'm not allowed to do." With this novel, Voltaire proved that the only way to gain supporters was not through speeches. He was able to create an entertaining piece while still fighting for his cause and gaining support.