Page 85 - DENG202_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_III

Elective English—III

Notes that he made mark on if he came back to the starting point before sunset. Pahom, full with greed,
walks beyond his limits. As a result, Pahom had to run to get back to the starting point. When he
did, he died of exhaustion. The landowner, who saw this happen, buried Pahom. The only land
he needed in the end was eight feet long, three feet wide land. The end of the story teaches us
how much we actually need in life. After death, we do not carry or bring anything with us. Use
the time given for better things than to satisfy your greed.
Many people in the world today believe that we need possessions and wealth to live a happy
life. They often waste their time trying to gain more for themselves. As Tolstoy tries to tell us,
we should not have agreed on materials that are meaningless, but we should do what is worthy.
As the story said, the only thing we need in the end, is a little piece of land.

6.8 Various Aspects of the Story

Tolstoy’s short story – “How much land does a man need?”–is a religious-morality tale which
can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but which seems primarily concerned with the destructive
consequences of human ambition. The story is about a man named Pahom – a peasant farmer–
who desires to acquire more land, acquires some land, but is not satisfied and needs to acquire
more. Eventually he over-reaches, forfeits all his accumulated wealth and causes his own death.
The message to take from the story may be as simple as a warning against biting off more than
you can chew, or we could say simply that the story shows how human nature pushes us to want
more and more. We are never content with our lives, no matter how well off we may be; and,
while trying to improve our standard of living, we put ourselves in danger of ending up with
nothing.
However, the story can be understood as presenting a message of greater complexity.
What Tolstoy gives us is a didactic tale, a story meant to teach a moral or religious lesson. His
purpose likely was to show how greed and an excessive desire for earthly wealth could destroy
a person. Along with this, Tolstoy offers a lesson about the consequences of ignoring spiritual
needs and the state of one’s soul, in favour of acquiring more and more material wealth. In
general, it is a story of what can happen when humans become too ambitious and greedy. There
are similar stories in myth, religious scripture, and secular literature.

Example: The story of King Midas and his “golden” touch. In Genesis, the Tower of
Babel is a brief account of how the excessive ambition of humans is struck down by God.
An important element in Tolstoy’s story is a boast by the farmer, Pahom, that if he had enough
land he would not fear anyone, not even the Devil. This is heard by the Devil who says to
himself:
“All right! We shall see about that. I’ll give you land enough; and by means of that land I will get
you!”
The Devil then sets in motion the series of events that eventually end as Pahom forfeits everything
including his life.
Therefore, we have a story in which Tolstoy teaches a lesson about humility and the need to fear
and respect the Devil, or at least recognize the power he can exert over us. For those who do not
believe in the Devil, the mythical character can be seen as personifying those aspects of our
nature, which are destructive and can eventually lead to our complete demise. This is probably
how Tolstoy would have us read the story.
Nevertheless, there are different ways that we can interpret and react to the story. We can take
it in terms of its religious message, or in terms of a philosophical/ethical teaching, or maybe in
terms of a teaching about social good. Today, we can even see it as making a point about our

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