How Much Land does a Man Need

 

How Much Land does a Man Need

[alert-success] HOW MUCH LAND DOES A MAN NEED

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    “How Much Land does a Man Need” is a short story written by Leo Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy has written many parables that explains the teachings of the Bible and Jesus Christ. In this short story, Pahom, a poor peasant, is the central character. One day he overhears his wife and sister-in-law argue over the merits of town and peasant farm life. At that time, Pahom thinks in his heart, "If I had a lot of land, I wouldn't be afraid of the Devil." The Devil hears Pahom’s claim and vows to tempt him with land.

    A local landowner suddenly decides to sell her property. The poor farmer Pahom decides to buy the land by selling most of his possessions. He buys forty of land. Pahom seems happy with land. But the local peasants disturb his peace by trespassing his land. Pahom repeatedly fines them and lives in conflict with his neighbours.

            One day a travelling peasant inform Pahom about a village near Volga River, where the land is good without any harmful neighbours. Therefore, Pahom sells all his land and goes to Commune and buys 125 acres of land. Though he has three times of what he had, he wants more land. His desire never ended.

    When he was about to buy a thirteen hundred acres of land for 1500 roubles, a passing merchant informs him about Bashkirs, where he can buy thirteen thousand acres for just 1000 roubles.  Bashkirs agrees to sell as much land as he can to Pahom for thousand roubles on one condition. He has to walk around the land, mark it with a spade, and get back to where he started before sunset. Pahom agrees right away.

    That night, Pahom has a dream in which the travelling peasant, the dealer, and the Bashkir chief all turn into the Devil, who then laughs at a dead body at his feet. Pahom wakes up and is scared to find that he is the dead person. He shakes off the dream and wakes up in the morning and takes up the spade and begins to start covering the land.

    Pahom easily covers six miles of land, by using the spade to mark his path. By noon, Pahom is getting tired of the constant sun, but he keeps going. After walking ten miles, he realises he needs to go faster if he wants to get back before it gets dark.

    He starts running because he's afraid he won't get back to the hillock before it gets dark. Just as the sun goes down, he gets to the bottom of the hillock. Pahom remembers his dream when he sees the Bashkir Chief laughing and grabbing his sides at the top of the hillock. He then falls to the ground and touches the sign. Pahom servants tries to wake him up but blood came out of Pahom’s nose and he dies. A worker for Pahom digs a small grave for him, and the story ends with the narrator saying, "Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed" (24).

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