An essay about individuality, liberty and equality in the context of "Looking Backward: 2000-1887" by Edward Bellamy and Alexis de Tocqueville's, "Democracy in America"

Is there an inherent contradiction between a strong desire for individuality and one of community? Can a society function with equal emphasis on liberty and equality? These are two questions which arose while examining Edward Bellamy's, Looking Backward, and Alexis de Tocqueville's, Democracy in America. In Looking Backward, Julian West serves as the narrator taking the reader on a journey in which he finds himself in a unique position to study his own socio-political times …

…the fact that it may be impossible to have complete equality and liberty, America finds a way to exist in a state where pieces of each simultaneously coexist. Bellamy, Edward; Looking Backward: Ch 4, p28 Bellamy, p28 Bellamy, p37 Bellamy, p77 Bellamy, p77 Bellamy, p131-132 Bellamy, p41 Bellamy, p41-42 Bellamy, p87 Bellamy, p167-168 Bellamy, p181 Tocqueville; Democracy In America: Volume One, Introduction, p3 Tocqueville; Democracy In America: Volume Two, Second Book, Ch 1, p97