The timeframe spanning from the late 1880’s to the early 1920’s America underwent major economic changes. During this timeframe two novels were published that portrayed how Americans felt during there respective timeframes. The first was Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward published in 1888. The other was Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt published in 1922. The novels are similar to each other in many ways but the reason they became so popular was because they expressed how many American’s felt during their respective eras however; both have polar opposite feels. Looking Backward has a sense of hope and optimism for the future while Babbitt has a much more pessimistic feel. The reasoning behind different moods of the novels is actually quite simple and
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Americans were finally getting over the wounds from the Civil War that had plagued a generation and were looking forward to the future. The main character in Bellamy’s Looking Backward is Julian West who wakes up in Boston in the year 2000 and learns that there is no more war, wealth is distributed evenly amongst the citizens and people are much more physically healthy than in the late 1880’s. As stated in the novel, “In your day, riches debauched one class with idleness of mind and body while poverty sapped of the masses by overwork, bad food, and pestilent homes. The labor required of children, and the burdens laid on women, enfeebled the very springs of life. Instead of these maleficent circumstances, all now enjoy the favorable conditions of physical life; the young are carefully nurture and studiously care for; the labor which is require of all is limited to the period of greatest bodily vigor”. (Bellamy 311) In this excerpt of the novel the mood is optimistic, Bellamy describes how the future people no longer work demanding hours in unsanitary environments for unjust wages. Rather, people now work fair hours and are compensated fairly for their work, which hit home with many Americans at the …show more content…
Looking Backward has a much more optimistic feel because it looks forward to the future where the economy is great, people have jobs that pay fair wages and the outlook on life is much more positive. In Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt the mood is a lot more negative. This is due to the American mindset at the time. During the early 1920’s the American middle class developed, but many Americans who were considered apart of the middle class were unhappy with their current financial situation because they still could not reach the elite even though they had food to put on the table for there families and they had cars to get to and from their jobs, they were still unsatisfied with what they had. Both novels did an amazing job of connecting with Americans about how they felt at the time which is why the novels became immensely popular in there respective
Americans were finally getting over the wounds from the Civil War that had plagued a generation and were looking forward to the future. The main character in Bellamy’s Looking Backward is Julian West who wakes up in Boston in the year 2000 and learns that there is no more war, wealth is distributed evenly amongst the citizens and people are much more physically healthy than in the late 1880’s. As stated in the novel, “In your day, riches debauched one class with idleness of mind and body while poverty sapped of the masses by overwork, bad food, and pestilent homes. The labor required of children, and the burdens laid on women, enfeebled the very springs of life. Instead of these maleficent circumstances, all now enjoy the favorable conditions of physical life; the young are carefully nurture and studiously care for; the labor which is require of all is limited to the period of greatest bodily vigor”. (Bellamy 311) In this excerpt of the novel the mood is optimistic, Bellamy describes how the future people no longer work demanding hours in unsanitary environments for unjust wages. Rather, people now work fair hours and are compensated fairly for their work, which hit home with many Americans at the …show more content…
Looking Backward has a much more optimistic feel because it looks forward to the future where the economy is great, people have jobs that pay fair wages and the outlook on life is much more positive. In Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt the mood is a lot more negative. This is due to the American mindset at the time. During the early 1920’s the American middle class developed, but many Americans who were considered apart of the middle class were unhappy with their current financial situation because they still could not reach the elite even though they had food to put on the table for there families and they had cars to get to and from their jobs, they were still unsatisfied with what they had. Both novels did an amazing job of connecting with Americans about how they felt at the time which is why the novels became immensely popular in there respective