Shortly after arriving in Eldorado, Candide and Cacambo come across young school children playing with gold nuggets, emeralds, and rubies in the road. Upon seeing this Candide remarks, “The children of the Kings of this country must be well brought up, if they are taught to despise gold and precious stones.”(p.75) He marvels at their righteousness and how unmaterialistic they are. From a young age they have been taught to loathe items that have brought about many greed driven conflicts among humanity. However, just as he praises this admirable quality he and Cacambo quickly “pick up the gold, emeralds, and rubies.”(p.75)
Here Candide fails to “practice what he preaches.” He approves of the children’s attitude toward the riches, yet double crosses himself by immediately turning around to pick them up for his own benefit.
This is called hypocrisy. People tend to do this much too often. They claim to believe in one thing, in this case not being avaricious, yet mere seconds later they completely turn their back on this and greedily hoard the goods in front of them.
Candide also demonstrates his hypocritical side when he compliments the country of Eldorado. He says, ”What country can this be?...It must be unknown to the rest of the world, because everything is so different from what we are used to. It is probably the country where all goes well.”(p.77) From this excerpt it is evident that Candide admires Eldorado and its ways. Yet, soon after he decides to leave and return to Europe. He contradicts himself by first saying that this must be, “the best of all possible worlds.” (p.20), then later expressing his desire to leave. Candide had struggled to find this best of all possible worlds and when he finally arrives, he wants to return to the land of hardships and troubles. He’s hypocritical in the way that he can never make a concrete statement. He is constantly doing the opposite of what he claims to believe. It all comes down to “practicing what you preach”, something Candide seems completely incapable of doing time after time.
I wouldn't call it hypocrisy, what Candide stated was true. He never said "they are well brought up, I must be like them." He faced the reality this children were saved from, the one he could no longer escape, a money based society. He took advantage of the opportunity since this kids didn't seem to need what he indeed needed. I would agree with you if maybe your excerpt gave direct prove that Candide preached that that was how he wanted himself to be. Less materialistic and better taught.
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