Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy

698 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays over utopias

Looking Backward The book Looking Backward was written by Edward Bellamy and published in the year 1888. Bellamy started off his career as a journalist but then married and decided to devote his efforts to writing fiction novels. Looking Backward was published and Bellamy was famous. The book stirred around the country and had people imagining a world like the one Bellamy created in his book. The idea of a utopia as the one he describes is unbelievable. His book is what people, of even now in the twenty first century, wish the world could possible be like. However, Bellamy’s world of reasoning and judging of people based on the inner beliefs was not what people of then or now do. Bellamy’s book showed a world of rationality being applied to create a world of down right good and generous people. If rationality was every used to create a wholesome war-hearted society than the picture that Bellamy envisioned would be true today. Bellamy built his utopia upon the position that individuals did not compete with one another. The story starts with a preface that explains the sum of the story. The story introduces the fact that Bellamy is writing as if it is already the twentieth century and the world is looked at through rationality. Bellamy uses the character Julian West to represent industrialization and how his utopia are used as the answers is used as the answers to industrialization problems, and Dr. Leete to represe...

Show More
Related

  • And When We Awoke there Was Light by Laura Jacqmin

    791 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the play And When We Awoke There Was Light and Light by Laura Jacqmin, she analyzes the ethical issues revolving around service in America. The main character Katie, struggles with this common ethical issue just like all other Americans when making a life decision that challenges one’s morals. Katie struggles with conflicting messages about service, not being fully committed to helping David, her pen pal from Uganda and then realizing in the end that David is more important than Harvard.

    Read More

  • Joel Achenbach's The Future Is Now

    476 Words  | 1 Pages

    Every one is scavenging for the next big gadget- the future is a standard that society strives to have in their grasp. However, Joel Achenbach a former humor columnist solves the mystery of the future in his article, “The Future is Now: it’s heading right at us, but we never see it coming” .he presents a sense of urgency describing that the future is not something that society needs to wait for it happens behind closed doors. He argues that the future is a fast pace entity that occurs all around us. Achenbach proves this point by sticking to his humorous style, with the use of witty allusions to Sci-Fi films.

    Read More

  • The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    From this novel, the reader can learn more about the economic system, and how it is applied to life. The reader is able to enjoy the narrative along with learn the principles that are introduced by Roberts.

    Read More

  • Everything Now By Steve Mckevitt

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.

    Read More

  • Independent Reading Project: Creating a Museum of Living Literature

    2150 Words  | 5 Pages

    In preparation for the Advanced Placement Literature and Composition exam, high school students must read many kinds of literature during the year-long course to familiarize themselves with different time periods, movements, philosophies, and genres. Advanced Placement students must learn to think critically, and be ready to find, analyze, and express literary connections through written analysis. The biggest challenge of teaching and learning Advanced Placement English is the difficulty covering the entire scope of literature in two semesters. Twentieth century literature often gets neglected. The pace of the curriculum can also limit the creativity of lesson planning and evaluation. Many teachers rely heavily on lecture, discussion, and a traditional analysis paper.

    Read More

  • Between The World And Me By Ta-Nehisi Coates

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his book “Between the World and Me”, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores what it means to be a black body living in the white world of the United States. Fashioned as a letter to his son, the book recounts Coates’ own experiences as a black man as well as his observations of the present and past treatment of the black body in the United States. Weaving together history, present, and personal, Coates ruminates about how to live in a black body in the United States. It is the wisdom that Coates finds within his own quest of self-discovery that Coates imparts to his son.

    Read More

  • Cause and Effects of Spanish American War to the Cold War on American Isolation

    1520 Words  | 4 Pages

    Edward Bellamy’s book Looking Backward was a projection of American thinking at this time that compounded on widely held belief of millennialism. This book mainly focused on a fictional future utopia one that many Americans wanted to believe in and develop. In this fictional story “… all now enjoy the most favorable conditions of physical life; the young are carefully nurtured and studiously cared for; the labor which is required of all is limited to the period of greatest bodily vigor…” This paints a picture that many want to come true, a picture that many people would go out and act upon and make it happen expand to encompass other spheres of influence and reach all over the world. Bellamy himself thought that America could influence the world going far enough to write about it in his book thinking that his new system of government would draw attention to America and other countries would want to replicate this new efficient system. In some ways he was right he was able to influence many Americans to look toward a brighter future, and this book even gave rise to many movements as “Mr. Edward Bellamy, a novelist by profession, is the recognized father of the Nationalist Clubs,” this book gave Americans hope and a global purpose to accomplish, to create a perfect society.

    Read More

  • Embracing Defeat by John Dower

    3331 Words  | 7 Pages

    John Dower's "Embracing Defeat" truly conveys the Japanese experience of American occupation from within by focusing on the social, cultural, and philosophical aspects of a country devastated by World War II. His capturing of the Japanese peoples' voice let us, as readers, empathize with those who had to start over in a "new nation."

    Read More

  • The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey

    1524 Words  | 4 Pages

    In her novel The Daughter of Time Josephine Tey looks at how history can be misconstrued through the more convenient reinterpretation of the person in power, and as such, can become part of our common understanding, not being true knowledge at all, but simply hearsay. In The Daughter of Time Josephine claims that 40 million school books can’t be wrong but then goes on to argue that the traditional view of Richard III as a power obsessed, blood thirsty monster is fiction made credible by Thomas More and given authenticity by William Shakespeare. Inspector Alan Grant looks into the murder of the princes in the tower out of boredom. Tey uses Grant to critique the way history is delivered to the public and the ability of historians to shape facts to present the argument they believe.

    Read More

  • Making Ethical Bids in a Competitive Market

    2008 Words  | 5 Pages

    As the United States economy struggles through a sluggish time with the stock market dropping and unemployment rising, being competitive in the job market has become extremely important among professionals. Engineers are no exception. For most engineering firms, being competitive and successful requires obtaining design projects offered by companies in other fields. These projects can range from designing heating and ventilation systems for office buildings to water systems for cities to computer networks for businesses—the list of possibilities and disciplines is extensive. To get these jobs, engineers must make a bid proposal for the project. Bidding involves estimating the entire cost of the project, including the designing and building processes, as well as the materials and labor. Usually, the company with the lowest bid and the best plan gets the job. The ethical issue in this process is determining the cheapest building materials and construction procedures possible without compromising public safety.

    Read More

  • Advertising and Smoking

    1597 Words  | 4 Pages

    Advertisers create ads for products that people would otherwise ignore. They excel at creating the illusion that your life is incomplete and in order to find peace and contentment the addition of their product in your life is necessary. For example, Camel and Natural American Spirits Cigarettes promote the use of tobacco, a known carcinogen that is responsible for almost half a million preventable deaths a year. “Each year, an estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking.” (Tobacco Use). Needless to say, most people would not want to purchase such products. However, with innovative and cunnin...

    Read More

  • A Prescription for Profit

    582 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 2007, the pharmaceutical industry spent approximately $4.8 billion dollars a year advertising prescription drugs directly to the public (ProCon.org 2005). A study by two York University researchers estimates the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends nearly twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development (York University, 2008). Why do they spend so much money marketing to the consumer? The simple answer is profit. Like any other business pharmaceutical companies are out to sell a product and make money. The primary concern of the pharmaceutical industry is not the welfare of the consumer but convincing them to take their drug. In order to eliminate this conflict of interest the pharmaceutical industry should be banned from directly marketing their products to the consumer.

    Read More

  • The Journey Of Steve Jobs

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    Steve Jobs started facing challenges throughout his whole life. At birth, he was put up for adoption which, although hard to embrace at first, would end up being one of the experiences that helped him to be so successful. When Steve was just six years old his neighbor found out he was adopted and teased him, which hurt him deeply. He told Steve his parents did not want him, which was the reason he was put up for adoption. He ran home to his adoptive parents who guaranteed him that he was special because they chose only him. From then on, Jobs had a sense of being special. Steve Jobs felt he was on a journey throughout his life. He often said, “The journey was the reward.” (“Jobs' Biography: Thoughts On Life, Death And Apple” 3). That journey involved realizing and resolving conflicts about his role in the world: why he was here and what it was about. Jobs advanced through his adolescent life strongly disliking the forced authority he must obey in a classroom. He resisted education to the maximum, but his unwillingness to continue on through college is what ironically led him to create the company, Apple, and direct it to become the 15th biggest company in the world (“The World’s Biggest Public Companies”). Through the practices of Zen Buddhism, Jobs became an effective leader as well as learned how to stand strong, and fight against upper authority from his early life to college to his firing from Apple’s board of directors

    Read More

  • Advertising in Today's Society

    1198 Words  | 3 Pages

    Advertisements clutter modern day society. It seems as if on every street corner, website, television show, magazine, or even car window, someone somewhere is trying to sell you something. Whether it be a product, a service, or an idea, businesses ploy manipulative and deceitful marketing schemes in order to persuade consumers into buying whatever they have to sell. While mass spread of these advertisements can be conducive to economic growth and possibly have other indirectly beneficial effects, there are a vast amount of advertisements that are sending destructive messages to the general public, as well as to the younger population of people. Harmful products such as tobacco, alcohol, fast food, or even potentially pharmaceutical medicines can be glorified, and encouraged for consumption. The negative effects these products can have are well documented, and it is concerning whether these advertisements should be more strictly regulated or banned from public display. Beyond physical harm, many advertisements can capitalize on the insecurities of vulnerable individuals, and can have a wide array of negative psychological effects including causing people to create a skewed body image of themselves, develop eating disorders, and even cause or worsen depression and anxiety. Many advertisements target children due to their innate vulnerability and innocence, generally preventing them from making sound judgments. While there are already many laws around the world regarding the restrictions placed on false advertising, censorship, and many other things, it could be argued that there are still a lot of negative outcomes from advertising, and stricter regulation is necessary.

    Read More

  • A Brief Biography Of Steve Jobs

    778 Words  | 2 Pages

    On February 24th, in San Francisco California Steve Jobs was born to Joanne Schieble and Abdul Fattah Jabali. Joanne was a speech therapist and Abdul Fattah was a political science professor of Syrian decent (Isaacson 2011). His mother was raised in Wisconsin in a family of German Decent and his father came from a prominent and rich family Syrian family with 9 children. His mother was a strict Muslim housewife and there was a lot of importance put on education in the house. Not long after his birth Steve, a nameless baby still, was given up for adoption. Clara and Paul Jobs who named him Steven Paul Jobs adopted him. Many say Steve’s father Paul lit the fire of interest in electronics in Steve’s mind and often encouraged him to experiment with these things. Job’s adopted father was not a college graduate and had grown up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin with an alcoholic father. His mother was a daughter of Armenian immigrants who had just fled the Turks and come to America. They were married within ten days of meeting each other. They had a happy marriage but due to having an ectopic pregnancy in the past, Clara was unable to conceive. (Isaacson 2011). So in 1955 they were looking to adopt. They were blessed with Steve.

    Read More

More about Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy

Open Document