Short story how much land does a man need. A Reaction Paper for How Much Land Does a Man Need?, a Short Story by Leo Tolstoy 2023-01-05
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"How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is a short story written by Leo Tolstoy, a Russian novelist and philosopher. The story tells the tale of a man named Pahom, who is driven by his greed and desire for more land.
Pahom lives in a small village where he is content with the amount of land he has. However, one day he hears about a place where land is abundant and cheap. Pahom becomes envious of the people who live there and decides to sell his land and move to this new place.
When he arrives, he finds that the land is indeed cheap and plentiful. Pahom becomes obsessed with acquiring as much land as possible, and spends all of his time and energy working to buy more and more land. He becomes wealthy, but at the cost of his health and happiness.
Despite his success, Pahom becomes increasingly unhappy and begins to feel that he will never have enough land. One day, he meets a man who tells him about a place where land is free for the taking. Pahom becomes excited at the prospect of acquiring even more land and decides to go to this place.
Upon arriving, Pahom is offered a deal by the local chief: he can have as much land as he can walk around in a single day, with the stipulation that he must return to the starting point by sunset. Pahom agrees to the deal and sets off at dawn, determined to acquire as much land as possible.
Pahom walks for miles and miles, constantly measuring the land he is acquiring. As the day wears on, he becomes exhausted and begins to doubt that he will be able to return to the starting point in time. Despite this, he continues on, driven by his greed and desire for more land.
As the sun begins to set, Pahom realizes that he is not going to make it back in time. In a desperate attempt to acquire more land, he starts running and eventually collapses from exhaustion. As he lies on the ground, he realizes that he has acquired more land than he could possibly need or use.
As he takes his last breath, Pahom realizes that his greed and desire for more land have ultimately led to his demise. The story ends with the question, "How much land does a man need?"
Overall, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is a cautionary tale about the dangers of greed and the importance of being content with what we have. It suggests that the pursuit of more and more material possessions will never bring true happiness or fulfillment. Instead, it is only when we are content with what we have that we can truly find peace and happiness.
How Much Land Does a Man Need by Leo Tolstoy: I Shall Never Reach that Spot: [Essay Example], 2421 words GradesFixer
A peasant passing through the night tells Pahom that many people have migrated to beyond the Volga, where there are 25 acres of land for each settler as he further explains how thick and high the rye sown grew. GradeSaver, 5 February 2021 Web. Acknowledging that it is similar to a fable, it is assumed that it is designed to enlighten the reader with a moral. Firstly, all these stories are different in their own regards but are very similar all at the same time. Pakhom is delighted, believing this will be easy and thinking he is getting the bargain of a lifetime from these simple people. However, it can be perceived that Tolstoy may have read it in both the social good and religious sense.
They debate over whether they prefer the city life or peasant life. He dreamt that Baskir chief was outside his tent chuckling at him, only to see him transform into the dealer, the peasant, and then finally, the Devil. He works hard to buy and sell a lot of fertile land, building up his fortune further. Pahom abandoned all aspects of his life for wealth, isolating himself from the interconnection to become one. The series of unfortunate events for Pahom begins as the plot moves forward.
The Corrupting Nature of Greed Theme in How Much Land Does a Man Need?
He thinks to himself that if he had plenty of land, he would have nothing to fear—not even the devil himself. The "red as blood" simile connotes an image of the striking, bright sun dramatically inching toward the horizon. Even then, it still takes Pakhom over two years to finish paying for the property. Although God is rarely mentioned in the story, he is always present whenever the enemy, Devil is mentioned. Pakhom views land as a source of comfort and security, and he will stop at nothing to obtain as much of it as he can. A short timer later, a landlady in the peasant village decides to sell her estate.
This is important because asking that question, how much land does a man need assumes that a person has a greedy mindset so they must realize their limit. He had land for everything he needed. He was also a well-regarded philosopher, authoring dozens of papers revealing his thoughts on government, religion, and Russian society. In addition, the distance from his original spot exemplifies his isolation from the community due to such temptations. The peasants do not have time for nonsense because they are piled with work to keep them busy, but since the higher classes already acquire their basic necessities for survival, they shift their focus towards things like temptations, pleasures, and even, profit without realizing that the more they earn, the more they can lose. The Devil attempts to lure Pahom after providing him with the necessary land he had asked for earlier.
How Much Land Does a Man Need? Metaphors and Similes
He is soon introduced to the Bashkirs, a local indigenous group, and learns that they are simple people who own a lot of land. Notably, the description of this setting deviates from the stark, objective descriptions of land that permeate the rest of the story. While Pahom assumed that getting more land would provide him security and protection, it was the complete opposite. After forgiving them multiple times, he finally lost his patience and started to fine people and complain to the District Court. So blinded is Pakhom by his greed that he literally walks to his own death and damnation. However, the night before his task, he experiences a horrific dream in which he sees himself lying dead on the ground, with the devil laughing over his corpse. God gives Pahom the opportunity of free-will, but the Devil attempts to change the moral decisions that is made through his free-will.
A Reaction Paper for How Much Land Does a Man Need?, a Short Story by Leo Tolstoy
He arrives at the starting point just as the sun sets, and the Bashkirs congratulate him. Pakhom later sells this newly-obtained land for a profit, which he then uses to secure even more property. The story ends with his servant burying him in a simple grave, six feet long—in the end, all the land he needed. Pahom was told about the best land ever and how cheap it was. If he returns to his starting point by sunset, he gets all the land he marked. Tolstoy places the ownership of land in juxtaposition with God because he is essentially the true creator and owner. When he arrives, he finds it just as he was told it was going to be.
Completely blinded by wealth, Pahom was unable to perceive this dream as a final warning from God. The night before he would mark his territory of land, he had a dream. Pahom travels to inquire about the land. There he hoped to find something different from Russia; but to his great disappointment, he found poverty and ignorance. By diligently working on the extra land, Pakhom is able to reap enough extra money to live a more comfortable existence.
Pahom over calculates how much land he is able to mark and as the end of the day approaches, he realizes it is too late. The peasant having the same, similar deal only took as much land as they needed. Although the moral can be perceived to indicate the false relation between money, or more specifically land and contentment, Tolstoy complicates this with the inclusion of the devil in the story, fostering the story to contain a religious or symbolic interpretation rather than a literal one. Our lives are in God's hands and although you good people are willing to give me the land now, it's possible your children might want it back again. He must not continually seek more and more material possessions, unrelated to his personal need. This being, people would be left working for the land that the greedy people have acquired for their own profit. However, the younger sister appears to be grateful for hers even if it is a lowly one that is near the farms.
Greed is an unnecessary risk to earn more than one could possibly need. Before the Devil was a dead man prostrated on the ground, only to realize it was himself. The man decided that he had a chance in earning even more money so he took it and lost. But after awhile, it came to be to little. Although the emancipated serfs could legally own land, there was not enough of it to go around, and that which was available was over-farmed and of poor quality.
The theme of abandonment reappears as he is abandoning his possessions and clothing in order to officially claim his land. Suddenly, exhausted from the run, his heart gives out, and he drops dead right in front of the landowners. Nevertheless, the story has a profound moral inner sense and rich historical background, both of which deserve further research and explanation. Although it is set in Russia, it is about the greed that many people had at the time and the outcome of that greed. Although it has never been directly adapted, motifs from the short story were used in the 1969 West German film Scarabea: How Much Land Does a Man Need? Therefore, Pahom overlooked it as an everyday dream instead of a foreshadow to his demise.
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