At the end of the story Candide has summed up all of his experiences, all of his influences, and his life to create his own philosophy of what life is really like. In Candide the plot is centered around the lives of the characters, more specifically Candide's life and how it was most influenced by others. As the story develops, one of Candide's most important concepts is suffering; why it happens, what it does and where it comes from. Each character grows as their life changes drastically, leading everyone to have very strong opinions on life with a sense of suffering. Pangloss was Candide's first influence, his philosophy was that everything is for the best, Candide adopted this philosophy into his life and applied it to everything. The character of Pangloss was a mentor to Candide, but a mentor who taught him that suffering must be best. Cunegonde, Candide's first love, was the reason Candide was kicked out