What are the main themes of the history of the Old Woman (ch 11 &12)? What does this catalouge of disasters have to do with the overall theme of Candide?

Despite the third-person omniscient narration, Voltaire gives voice to the two central female characters, allowing them to shape the account of their own destinies. Contrast the woe-is-me attitude of Miss Cunégonde with the more self-empowering stance of the Old Woman, who refuses to buy into the solipsism of victimhood, instead showing compassion toward her travelling companions: "I have become more concerned with your fate than with my own." Undoubtedly, the ethics of care articulated by the Old Woman is the closest thing to a philosophical alternative that Voltaire offers up in response to the doctrine of "optimism," which is inherently egoistic and engenders a form of paralyzing self-pity.