Call To Freedom In Looking Backward By Edward Bellamy

1086 Words5 Pages
Since the 19th century, profound change has marked the United States and the world. This is brought to full light in Edward Bellamy’s 19th century book, Looking Backward. As Bellamy follows the experiences of a young 19th century American man named Julian West, who awakes to find himself in the year 2000, he explores the possibility of a utopian society in which people could find freedom from the oppressive and harsh circumstances prominent in his time. Although the government is now in control of much of every day life, it has saved the people from corrupt business practices, greedy business executives, crime, and war. As Bellamy looks around at his own society and sees continuous chaos and disarray, Looking Backward is a call to action and a forecast of a peaceful, utopian world in which man has little to fear. Bellamy’s strong conviction that to be human means to be loyal, harmonious, altruistic, and honest, led him to believe that this and more was possible, as humans unite to bring about change in the world. Bellamy, a writer from Massachusetts, is set in his deep resentment for the disorderly and chaotic social, political, and economic system of the late 19th century. As he quite accurately portrays, America was epitomized by the working classes becoming “infected with a profound discontent with their condition, and an idea that it could be greatly bettered if they only knew how to go about it.” In Looking Backward, Julian notes that there were two mindsets that
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