Bellamy's Looking Backward

1.What are the main characteristic of the utopia and dystopia ?

Bellamy version of utopia comes out of two dominant traditions the first one being the eighteenth-century Enlightenment also ,known as the Age of Reason and Christianity. Bellamy envisions the new society as "the logical outcome of the operation of human nature under rational conditions."Looking Backward begins in a world setting of labor strike, low wages and unequal treatment to all citizens. Bellamy's had introduced the late-nineteenth century to the future that explored the ideals of social reform. The Nation which was organized as the greatest business corporation in which all other corporations were absorbed. It became the one capitalist. The economy in the utopia is based on publicly owned capital rather than private.

Bellamy wanted his reader to understand the idea that an economy based on publicly-owned capital would enhance the characteristic that nineteenth century society admired most about their industrial system. The future utopia would be more efficient because labor would be idle, and supply would match demand. Shared labor helped create social order."The worker is not a citizen because he works, but because he is a citizen"(p.100). The presidents emerges as a general

from the industrial army, selected for its retired ranks. All voting is limited to retired citizens this assured that the government was ruled by experts.
2.What are the primary ideas that the utopia or dystopia is designed to achieve ?
The primary idea of Looking Backward is the idea of rationality to economic and social problems. The idea that the new society is “the logical outcome of the operation of human nature under rational conditions” is repeated in different forms throughout the novel. It means that people are basically good and generous. If rationality is used to create a society that reflects that goodness and generosity, then society will look like the one Bellamy envisions. Equality was a primary idea. "All persons equally have...opportunities of higher education."The citizens all had equal college-level education allowing for everyone to received the same wages.
In this utopia there is political neutrality, "We have no parties or politicians." The citizens had a great deal of freedom, they were able to choose their own career and a set retirement age at 45.Bellamy knew he had to focus on closing the gap between rich and the poor, although the readers in his time thought this would be impossible to do. The utopia is based on the ideal of brotherhood of man and it was unthinkable for any individual should suffer from hungry and poverty. He shared very similar views with Thomas Moore in the Utopia in the idea to shared resources.
3.How realistic is the utopia or dystopia ?
The idea of Julian West and his dream was not realistic the world he explored was very realistic.

Bellamy idea on future economic and technological developments were very realistic. He imagines goods being bought in centralized warehouses tied together in a complex, super-fast and efficient nation-spanning logistic system. This idea reminded me the idea of Wal-mart and Amazon and other big chain warehouses. He imagined the idea of telephones and purchases being made with something like a credit card. He has the idea of an "Access Cards" given to the needy to purchase food, medical care and other necessities and this reminded me of our warfare system and the idea of the EBT card for food to the low income

families.
4.What do you find most appealing about the utopia, or most unappealing about ?
I love that aside from the needs of motherhood, women are also required to fill the ranks of the industrial army. There is no money in Looking Backward he substitutes it with a system of wealth distribution ensures that all labor is valued equally. I thought it was interested to be able to relate this idea to our society today and basically the ideal of the credit card is what he had envisioned in 1887.
The only thing that was unappealing to me was the "fairy like story" he used to help transition into his world of utopia . The idea of Julian falling in love with Edith who is the great-granddaughter of the women he was suppose to marry in the nineteenth century. Besides that I thought Bellamy's ideas for social reform was brilliant and he did a good job presenting his century to a new idea that has come to be true in many ways.