How Edward Bellamy Demonstrated Optimism in 1800s

Edward Bellamy was a famous and unique author who wrote a conspicuously futuristic book, Looking Backward.

As an author, journalist and political activist, he looked at the future and wrote a utopian book about the 19th Century. We will look at how Edward Bellamy demonstrated optimism in the book that he wrote in the 1800s

In Looking Backward, Bellamy demonstrated hope and optimism in the future by writing about a better future American economy when the real economy at the time was in problems.

How Edward Bellamy Demonstrated Optimism in 1800

In the book, Edward Bellamy explains how future American people will produce goods and services and how they will consume them.

He further explains how the industries will be working better than they were.

Before the man in the book, Julian West took, asleep that wakes him to a utopian world, America was in problems with workers’ strikes, building delays and labor conflicts (Bellamy 10).

However, he explains a better economy, where Julian West wakes up with no labor problems.

In addition, Edward Bellamy demonstrated optimism by contrasting the world at the time, the year 1800, with the future world in 2000. This contrast gives the future the best place in the book.

As a result, American society feels optimistic that the future will be better than the past.

More specifically, Bellamy describes the things that the future society will do better than the current one in the late nineteenth century.

For instance, he explains the family of Doctor Leete, who lives in a better society with equal opportunities, better products, good morals, and friendly people.

Why Bellamy’s Book Looking Backward was influential

The book Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy was so influential to American society because it gave American society the image of how the future looks like. The book became influential because it related the current situation with the idea of the progress of the human race and gives people hope for a better America.

In addition, the book is so influential because it addressed the issues Americans faced when it was written. He explains that there will come a time when these problems will be over.

For instance, he addressed the problem of women not being treated equally in society in 1800. He describes a future society where women will be respected and have equal opportunities with men, like in Dr Leete’s family (Bellamy 18).

The Link between Bradbury Building and Bellamy’s Book

I think the Bradbury building has to do with the future buildings that Bellamy describes in his book. Bellamy explains that the future will have magnificent buildings that he observed in his morning walk while in the utopian world (Bellamy 35).

The building illustrates the real type of buildings that Bellamy writes about as being future buildings.

                                                            Work Cited

Bellamy, Edward.Looking Backward From 2000 to 1887. Project Gutenberg Association / Benedictine University, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889, Print