Looking Backward free essay sample

Looking Backward by Edward Bellary Julian West, the main character of Looking Backward, was born into a rich family in the late nineteenth century. The gap between the rich and poor was very huge and seemed impossible to fix. Like the other people of his high class, Julian thought that he was greater than the poor people, and he saw their constant strikes with anger and contempt. He was engaged to Edith Bartlett, who was a beautiful and graceful Boston lady.They planned to get married when the construction of their new home was completed, but the frequent strikes by the building trades delayed their marriage for over a year. Julian was a sufferer of insomnia, and since he couldnt sleep, he secretly built an underground sleeping chamber to protect him from outside street noises. He employed Doctor Pillsbury, a skilled mesmerism, to help him into a deep sleep. The Doctor trained Sultans servant, Sawyer, to wake Julian up from his sleep. We will write a custom essay sample on Looking Backward or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The night before Doctor Pillsbury left Boston for a new job in New Orleans, Julian asked for his help one last time. After Doctor Pillsbury put Julian to sleep and left, a fire destroyed Sultans home, but the underground chamber protected Julian. Since no one else knew about his secret chamber, hey all thought that Julian was dead. Over a hundred years later, it is now the twentieth century and Doctor Elate, who was preparing the site for the construction of a new laboratory, discovers Sultans secret chamber.Julian hasnt aged a day because he has been in a state of suspended animation. Doctor Elate wakes him up and takes him into his home. Julian learns that twentieth century society is extremely different from the nineteenth century. The economy is based on publicly owned capital other than private, unlike the nineteenth century. The government controls the earnings and divides the sectional product equally between all citizens. Every citizen receives a college level education and people are given a lot of freedom in choosing what career they want to pursue.Society is based on an ideal of the brotherhood of man, and it is unimaginable that anyone should suffer from poverty or hunger. With the help of Doctor Elate, Julian starts to understand and appreciate the twentieth century society. In the meantime, Julian learns that Doctor Elites daughter, Edith, is the great granddaughter of Edith Bartlett, who was his fiance. Julian and Edith later become engaged in the novel. Julian has a rebel nightmare, where he dreams that his transportation to the ;ninetieth century was just a dream. He finds himself trapped again in the harsh world of the nineteenth century. He starts to clearly notice for the first time all of the faults of nineteenth century society. He tries to explain this to his friends, Edith Bartlett, and her family, why their society is so awful and harsh, and how it can be changed into something much better. However, they only get scared and angry, so they dismantling from their company. When Julian wakes up the next morning, he is relieved to discover that his trip to the whiniest century wasnt just a dream.I think it was pretty fascinating how the author actually predicted a few of the twentieth century changes, especially since the book was published so long ago in the year 1888. The time travel was pretty interesting. But overall, Im not a big fan of utopian novels because they bore me and I didnt find myself enjoying it as much as do disappoint. The utopian society would have been amazing and ideal when the book was first published, and its still sort of interesting to read now, but a lot of the things that Edward Bellary fixed in is society are still not provided today.Its like Its good that you were really hopeful, but no, that wasnt the case. That is just my opinion though. I felt like the love story was a little strained and I feel as though the narrator completely forgot about his past love. The story was interesting at first but later it was just very wordy and there was not really any action. This was not as satisfying as I had expected and I guess I wasnt prepared for pages and pages of sociological discussions. The book started out great in the first few chapters but became more tedious as the story progressed.