Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward speaks of Boston in the year 2000, which is intended to be a utopia for Julien West who lives in Boston of 1887–where there is distinct inequality within different social classes. In Boston of 2000 everyone is seemingly equal, money is eliminated along with all corruption and there is peace and happiness […]
The world Bellamy creates is supposed to be a utopia for men and women both. While it is easy to simply state that fact it is much more difficult to convince the reader, especially with the complete lack of evidence that is provided by Bellamy. In the time that Julian West originally came from women […]
Edward Bellamy’s novel Looking Backward focuses that the world has progressed in the world of Boston 2000 through the power of Eugenics. Because of this practice of science, the world would be “not only a physical, but a mental and moral improvement” than Julian’s life in 1887(1). Most people today go straight to the horrific experiments […]
As we discussed Looking Backwards in class, we were focused on a lot of very didactic (in the world of the book) elements and their relation to and/or possible impact on the “real world.” However, it was only until I started thinking about our discussion of the end of the book, when it becomes difficult to […]
In his utopian novel Looking Backward, Edward Bellamy presents futuristic Boston as a wonderful place for women. One aspect that Bellamy addresses is how domestic work has changed for women. Dr. and Mrs. Leete describe how housework has been eliminated with the industrial army taking over cooking, mending, cleaning and other menial tasks. Marvelous devices […]
Being able to predict the future with such close accuracy in some aspects to me is amazing. This is exactly what Edward Bellamy did within Looking Backward, from envisioning radios to modern day debit cards. This is honestly what intrigued me the most throughout the novel, the idea that someone could nearly predict parts […]
In Edward Bellamy’s novel, Looking Backward, Bellamy envisions a socialist America that is supposed to be the most utilitarian and ideal economic and social system. Bellamy’s utopian depiction of Boston, Massachusetts in the year 2000 relates to Jeremy Betham’s idea of utilitarianism by attempting to maximize the pleasure of its citizens by taking care of […]
“Human nature itself must have changed very much,” .… ““Not at all” was Doctor Leete’s reply, “but the conditions of human life have changed, and with them the motives of human action.”” (Bellamy 68) Throughout the novel Julian West is struggling with the idea that human nature must have changed in some way for the […]
While reading Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, I found the idea of servitude in both time periods very interesting. In the late 1880’s, people were so focused on competition. The most important thing was to be on top of society and live the luxurious life. A job as a waiter or factory worker was looked […]
A theme I thought notable that carried throughout Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy, is the confusion that Julian West has as to how the world of future Boston can be financially viable. For example, West suggested that the people of 1887 would question how this would work as, “But they were a very practical people, my contemporaries, […]
The picture posted above is one of many results that I received on Google.com after I typed the word “money” into the image search bar. Some of the pictures that came up were of people throwing money into the air and smiling. Most of the people in those pictures seemed quite happy that they were […]
Looking Backwards: this book, carries with it an assortment of concepts that are definitively worthy of positive and negative criticisms, in regards to the content presented, and the means of how the author, Edward Bellamy presents it. The overview of the American Utopia, many speculate, to be reminiscent of socialism, the grandfather to communism, as the wealth is distributed […]
The gaps between the worker class and owner/wealthy upper class in the novels and movie that we watched is getting interesting. Technology may be a factor but what’s standing is the gaps, at first Granville, and Shelly their was just an upper class doing what it wanted with science or telling the future. But now […]
It is certainly hard to imagine living in a completely cooperative society such as the one described in Bellamy’s novel, a world where just doing your best is good enough, and the individualistic mindset is cast aside as an unnecessary stumbling block. Speaking personally, my employment not only requires that I do my job to […]
I legitimately can’t stop seeing the Science Fiction novels we’ve been reading as part of one continuous timeline, despite the fact that they were written by different people with different agendas in mind.
In Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy I was struck by the scene where Edith presents Julian with several novels from his own time. Bellany wrote, ” As my eyes glanced over the names on the backs of the volumes, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, Shelley, Tennyson, Defoe, Dickens, Thackery, Hugo, Hawthorne, Irving, and a score of other great writers […]
Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy introduces the reader to a seemingly perfect society. Everyone starts working at 21 for three years before choosing a labor job or education, then retires at 45. There is no money, and people don’t try to sell you things-you can easily get anything you want at no cost. It sounds […]
From the discussion we have had in class, and the comments on the book – Bellamy’s Looking Backward seems to looked at as a Utopian book: there’s no war/need for a military, no wages, you retire when you’re 45 and college and items are free. Yet, doesn’t this work into the expression, “it’s too good […]
While reading the section about the separate corp1 for mental, and physical disabilities hit a nerve with me. I read this section without really thinking about the time period it was being written, this is where even the idea of a separate corp for these people would of been a big social change. The nerve […]
Space Race, Arms Race, The Color Run 5k. With someone right next to you, pounding their feet, breathing, and heart pumping just as hard as yours, with the same dead-eyed cold stare reminding you that no sympathy will be spared for your body’s aches, you’re only course for success is to look within yourself and […]
When we discuss Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward in class, it is pretty obvious that myself, and others, would not like the “utopia” that Bellamy had created. There are many debatable flaws with idea of his utopia, but how does that 2000 compare to the one that actually happened? Think back fourteen years when Brittney Spears […]
Does everything in the Boston of 2000 seem as great to you as it does to me? They have it all. Everyone fits into this nice machine that is run by the Great Trust. Who needs to worry about finding a job? They’re all right there for you, basically guaranteeing something to do, only […]
It seems impossible to fathom the idea of a literal Marxist society, completely classless and blanketed by equality. One specific aspect from this ideology is particularly striking, though. That is the absence of consumerism as we know it today, the absence of any reliance whatsoever on a monetary system. In reading Bellamy’s “Looking Backward,” it […]
In Edward Bellamy’s futuristic story Looking Backward, the first thing I am struck with is the title. The title would imply that Julian West, our protagonist, is looking back on his life in 1887. In reality we see very little of 1887 compared to what we learn about 2000. Perhaps the Looking Backward title is […]
I kept wondering what the point of living in the Boston of 2000 even was, since everything is easy and everything is basically given to you at the cost of genuine individuality. What is there for people to live and work for outside of the common good and their own pleasure?
According to Bellamy an ideal world is a socialist one and while the picture he paints does seem very nice there is still something just slightly off putting about it. For instance the thought that people work out of a sense of patriotism is just not believable. That is because if everyone was so patriotic […]
While reading Bellamys Looking Backward the two ideas that stuck with me still to this point would be the idea of what they call the mesmerized sleep and the society as a whole. My issue with mesmerized sleep is not that people can’t be put to sleep through spell, however 13 years is unreasonable. I […]
In “Looking Backward”, the perfect socialist society is detailed. From our capitalist society (and from deep within the College Loan Mines) it sounds fantastic; like a paradise. Play until you’re 21, work until you’re 45, and don’t have to worry about money at any given time. What could possibly go wrong? Well, one problem […]
In class we have talked a lot about whether Bellamy’s year 2000 and the many things we would like to see now. I like Bellamy’s idea of no money or currency. As long as everyone does their time working, I do not see a problem with people then taking what they need, or what they […]
In chapter ten of Looking Backward has been the most interesting to me. I look at this chapter from so many different perspectives. I look at it from the girl who loves to shop, I look at is as the girl who works retail, I look at it as a shopper from 1887, I look […]