Looking Backward, 1888
What events might have been on Bellamy's mind during 1886-87, and how might his tale be a response? (Haymarket Riots of 1886, rise of major unregulated trusts)
To what earlier plots do you think this utopia may be indebted? (e. g., Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
What are some ways the frame of Looking Backward is effective? Why does the author make a point of the exactness of his dates?
What are some humorous and satiric ways in which Bellamy makes his points? His use of metaphor? (image of coach with passengers riding on top, 11-12, change of seasons between two worlds)
What are some of the many parallels in theme and incident between Looking Backward and News from Nowhere? (no money, adequate provision for all wants, women's clothes have improved, all is clean, women (and men) are physically healthy, people are eager to work, no need to compete with or fight other nations, no political parties or formal government, classes abolished and good conditions for all, education includes practical skills, no servant class, communal dining, provision for authorship, dignity of labor respected, no prisons, no army or navy)
What are some chief differences? (Bellamy's tale emphasizes the machinery of the frame, the new order is achieved without violence or revolution, education, though broad, is limited to certain ages, Looking Backward is more concerned with its protagonist's mental states, heavy sex stereotyping as Edith's chief occupation is shopping, Bellamy's version is more sympathetic to the use of technology and machinery, appeals to religion in a more conventional sense, Bellamy's Julian is permitted to mate and remain in the new society, book ends romantically whereas Morris's ends with an appeal to the reader to work for the birth of a better society)
What is significant about the reference to anarchists? (15) How does he characterize these, and why does he think they will fail to alter society? (fear isn't effective)
Have some of Bellamy's prophecies been fulfilled? (shopping by catalog and delivery service; European Union, recorded music, communal domestic tasks aided by machinery (to some degree), increased professionalization, covered shopping centers, credit cards, alarm clocks)
Do some of his better suggestions remain to be realized? (medical care for all, social equality)
What motivates better performance in Bellamy's society? (67) Is this inconsistent with a society of alleged equals? Are there any sectors of present day society that seem organized around the granting of honors?
What might be the psychological effect of a society regulated by exact classes of honors such as Bellamy suggests? In such a society can persons really be classed as equal?
Does Bellamy consider the issue of unequal treatment of races in his society? What is his view of what we now term the "undeveloped world"? (71, speaks of "backwards races")
How has the process of shopping changed? (52ff., no clerks, nearby warehouses, uniformity of goods, supply regulated to meet demand)
What roles do women seem to serve in Bellamy's model world?
How has music become more available? (57-60) Are there ways in which this might not be an unmixed blessing?
Why is no legislation required? (60) Are inheritances restricted? (no, 60) Why is excessive accumulation no longer seen as a threat? (60-61)
What have been changes in medical practice? (62, training required) Does Bellamy believe this will solve all the problems of malpractice, and do you agree?
What treatment is given to the disabled or those unable to work? (67-68, treated equally)
What writers does Bellamy think will still be admired in 2000? (Dickens, Tennyson, and others, 76-77) Is he correct? What does Julian notice when he returns to the works of Dickens? How does he characterize the romances of the 20th century author Berrian?
Does Bellamy imagine a role for literary women in the new society?
How have libraries changed? How is the publication of books managed? Of newspapers? (82-83)
What do we suspect lies behind Edith's evasive response when Julian asks about the identity of her ancestors? (88-89) What role does Dr. Leete foresee for him? (90)
How are presidents chosen in the society of 2000? Why does Bellamy consider this an ideal method? (94-95) Can you see any limitations to it? (gerontocracy!)
How has life expectancy changed? (98)
What has happened to prisons, and why? (99) To lawyers and law schools? How are judges chosen and how are decisions made? (100-101) What do you make of the abolition of juries?
On what grounds have state governments been abolished? (103) What form of distributive entity still remains? (small regions and towns)
What has happened to the army and navy? (103)
How does Julian respond when he visits the chamber of his previous residence? (105-107, has become accustomed to his new life)
What are some changes in higher education? (107-1010, more widespread, available to all) How will this increase happiness? (the cultured won't be isolated; parenting will be improved)
What changes have enabled the higher standard of living of the new century? (no government debts, no military force, no waste on luxury, greater efficiencies of labor and distribution, fewer domestic tasks, end of capitalist enterprise, with waste, competition, and cycles of boom and bust, cartels and price-gouging, 112-114)
What had been the effects of the credit system? (116) Is this still a problem? What had been the effect of uncertain employment? Of the inability to obtain credit? (118, mingled scarcity and want)
What question does Julian ask Edith, and what is her response? (121, doesn't wish to answer) In retrospect, what will the reader learn has been her motive? (she is the great-granddaughter of his former betrothed) Why wouldn't she wish to reveal this to him?
What does Dr. Leete state to have been the cause of the revolutionary movements of the nineteenth century? (were paid for by capitalists in order to discredit them, 123) What does this invention reveal about Bellamy's views of organized socialism? (he would later soften in his views of organized labor)
What changes does Dr. Leete explain have occurred in the position of the women of his day? Are these consistent with Edith's role in her father's home? (She should have been in the industrial army!) Which of these changes would have seemed reformist, and which anti-reformist? (women had independent sustenance, able to engage in occupations, were entitled to alternate honors; on the other hand, they were expected to pursue a separate range of occupations, were considered weaker, and singleness seems to have rarely been chosen, 125-27)
What changes have occurred in the etiquette of courtship? (women may declare love as much as men, 130) Does Bellamy deal with issues of divorce, incompatibility, or child-rearing?
What considerations were women expected to take into account in choosing a mate? (eugenically, chose mate from respect for his qualities and their effect on children) Would a change to marriages based on love have created the eugenic changes assumed by Bellamy? (confuses issues of inherited traits with desirable personal qualities such as good character, 131)
According to Mr. Barton's sermon, why had the people of the nineteenth century lived as they did? (were convinced that there was no better way, 137) What prompted the bloodless revolution? (a sense of hope, 138-39) What does he predict for the future? (continued evolution and perfection, a return to God, 142)
After Julian declares his love and Edith reciprocates, what secret does he learn? (144-45) How has Edith come to be the great-granddaughter of his former love? (the latter married and produced a son, who was Edith's grandfather) What joke does Edith make, and how does Julian respond? (he should not be jealous of her great-grandfather; he responds that he is only not jealous because it was her great grandfather, 148)
Into what dream does the narrator now fall? What does he see in nineteenth-century Boston than he had formerly ignored? With what events is the newspaper of 1887 filled? Does this seem an accurate account of the news of its day? (or of ours?) (150)
What happens when he attempts to persuade his fiance and her family and friends that changes in the social order are needed? How does his rhetoric change? ("I have been in Golgotha," 158) What causes him to awake? (violence of his emotion, 160)
Is the happy ending in which Julian returns to the improved new world satisfying? What emotions may it leave in the reader? What potential problems of plot does it resolve? (it is uncertain what role the newly aware Julian will fill in the nineteenth-century society) What is the effect of ending the book with a consummated romance? (161)