# Looking Backward explained — Looking Backward

> Chapter companion for Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy.

## What happens

The opening chapter introduces Julian West, a wealthy young Bostonian living in the late 19th century. He describes his comfortable life, his engagement to Edith Bartlett, and the social unrest of the era, including labor strikes and class conflict. The chapter sets the stage for his eventual trance and awakening in the year 2000.

## Themes in this chapter

### Social Inequality and Class Division

Julian's wealth and comfort are contrasted with the poverty and unrest of the working class, emphasizing the deep class divisions of 19th-century America.

### Critique of Capitalism and Consumerism

The chapter critiques the capitalist system through Julian's observations of labor strikes and the inefficiency and injustice of the economic order.

## Character check-ins

### Julian West

Narrator and protagonist; a wealthy Bostonian describing his life and the social conditions of 1887.

### Edith Bartlett

Julian's fiancée, mentioned in the context of their engagement and his visits to her family.

### Mrs. Bartlett

Edith Bartlett's mother, present during Julian's visits.

## Key lines

> The vast majority of the people of the United States were, at the time of which I write, inhabitants of cities, and the country was rapidly becoming urbanized.

Most Americans lived in cities, and urbanization was accelerating.

_Julian notes the rapid urbanization of America in the late 19th century._

> I was a child of my age, and I believed in the existing order of things as a matter of course.

Julian accepted the social and economic system of his time without question.

_Julian reflects on his uncritical acceptance of 19th-century society._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/looking_backward_se/chapters/looking-backward
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/looking_backward_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/looking_backward_se/chapters