How Much Land Does a Man Need? Exploring Greed and Contentment
How Much Land Does a Man Need?
By Tolstoy
- What does Pahom claim is the only thing that troubles a peasant? [Peasants do not have enough land.]
- Why did Pahom leave his first plot of land? [He felt it was too cramped to be comfortable, and he had continuous disputes with fellow Commune members.]
- What deal do the Bashkirs offer Pahom? [For one thousand rubles, he may have as much land as he can walk around in a day.]
Extend the Discussion
Making Predictions:
Using the title of the story and the sisters’ statements about city values and country values, what can you predict about the rest of the story? The story will be about the consequences of striving for what you want and the possible benefits of striving only for what you need.
Determining Author’s Purpose:
In the last paragraph on this page, how does Tolstoy suggest that the story will be an allegory? Allegories often have characters that stand for specific abstract qualities. Here, the Evil One is the tempter.
Analyzing Character:
What does Pahom’s response to the village cows’ straying onto his land suggest about how his character is changing? He is no longer a simple, hardworking, God-fearing peasant. His land ownership is beginning to corrupt him. He does not wish to share with the poorer peasants but instead guards his land and possessions selfishly.
Finding Details:
Pahom is not the only one in the Commune that desires more land. How does the yearning for more land affect those working on communal land? The land was good, so everyone wanted more, causing many fights among the communal farmers.
Making Judgments:
Are you still sympathetic with Pahom’s quest for more land? Why or why not? Tolstoy makes it harder to be sympathetic because Pahom’s greed for more land becomes even more predictable and intense. The Evil One is clearly winning.
Theme:
After Pahom finishes building and settling down, he again begins to feel that his land is not enough. What message do you think Tolstoy is trying to deliver by repeating this narrative pattern? When you spend your life being led by your desires, you will never be content no matter how much you have.
Finding Details:
When Pahom reaches the place where the Bashkirs live, what observations does he make about the Bashkir people? They do not farm their land and they let their cattle roam free. The men only drink, eat, and play music all day and do not think of working.
Questioning:
What questions might you ask about the dealer’s statements about the Bashkirs in the fifth paragraph? Are the Bashkirs really “as simple as sheep”? Is there a catch to their low land prices? Does the dealer have an ulterior motive? Might he be the Devil in another form?
Determining Author’s Purpose:
How do you think Tolstoy wants readers to interpret the bargain that Pahom makes with the chief? Some students may decide that the bargain he strikes with the Bashkir chief is too good to be true. His greed blinds him to any possible outcome except the one he desires.
Making Predictions:
Knowing what you know about Pahom’s dream and his extensive marking off of land, what do you think will happen to him at the end of the story? Pahom’s dream hints that he will die, and from judging the amount of effort he expends to choose his land, his death is likely.
Interpreting:
How does Pahom react when the Devil appears in his dream? Why does Pahom miss the message that the dream is telling him? Pahom is alarmed but not concerned. His obsession with acquiring more land leads him to dismiss the warning.
Reading Focus
Possible responses:
1. He starts to want more land.
2. The Devil exploits Pahom’s greed. Pahom’s greed eventually leads to his death.
3. If we live for our wants, we won’t have enough, but if we live for our needs, we’ll have enough.
4. Students should refer to details in the story and sum up Pahom’s discovery in one or two sentences.
5. irritated 6. upset 7. Wronged 8. fertile 9. argued 10. flat
11. Pahom’s wife mentions, “Loss and gain are brothers twain,” foreshadowing the eventual loss of his gains.
12. According to Tolstoy’s parable, unchecked ambition and greed destroy people. Pahom’s death proves the harm of striving too much for material gain.
13. Current scandals show that people still behave foolishly or unethically in pursuit of wealth.
14. greed; temptation; human weakness; covetousness; material desires
15. Tolstoy is critical of Pahom but not bitterly satiric. A tacit amusement at Pahom’s predicament softens the condemnation of his weakness.