A full-time tutor like Pangloss is in Candide would be highly influential in the life of my 13-year-old child, so I would want someone for the job who would exert a beneficial impact on my child. Of the three possibilities Cacambo, Pangloss, and Martin, I would choose Cacambo as my child's tutor. Since my child would undoubtedly look up to his tutor and try to emulate him, I want someone of impeccable character, and Cacambo is such an individual, moral and upright and with a strong sense of duty. Cacambo is practical, as well; when he and Candide are embarking on their journey, he plans ahead and packs a variety of foods to sustain them while they are on their way. Furthermore, Cacambo is free from the deceptions of any philosophy, which sets him far ahead of the other characters, such as Pangloss who subscribes to the ridiculous theory that we live in the best of all possible worlds. Cacambo does not always perceive situations entirely correctly, as when he tells Candide that the monkeys pursuing the naked girls could be their lovers, and he gets his facts wrong, as when he tells Candide that the monkeys are a fourth part human, but getting facts wrong is far preferable to having a view of the universe that is wrong. Facts can easily be confirmed, but once someone has a mistaken worldview, it is difficult to change his thinking, and it affects everything he thinks, says, and does.
Another reason I would choose Cacambo is that he sees the positive in situations. His optimism contrasts with Pangloss's in that it is more realistic. While Pangloss labels everything from tragedy to triumph as a good thing simply because his philosophy says so, Cacambo sees the real good in situations that Candide would otherwise miss. At one point, for example, Candide laments, "My friend, you see how perishable are the riches of this world; there is nothing solid but virtue, and the happiness of seeing Cunegonde once more" (Rous...