Monday, 4 March 2019

How Much Land Does a Man Need? by Leo Tolstoy

How much Land does a Man Need? Is a short story written by Leo Tolstoy. This short story was the first text which I like when I was in my first year of UG. The title itself leads us to the ambiguity.


This is the story of a peasant named Pahom. Pahom is living in village and he thinks that if he has enough land he will not fear the Devil. This devil overheard and now he is planning to test Pahom. Devil gives Pahom plenty of chances to earn more and more land. Pahom’s lust leads him to the Bashkirs. Bashkirs are selling land with very less amount. Pahom made deal with the leader of Bashkirs, that Pahom will have as much land as he can walk in one day, but the condition was that he has to return to at the end of the day where he has started otherwise he will lose his money. Next day he started walking and in lust of have more and more land, he went too far from the starting point. To complete the circle he has to reach at the starting point. When he see sun is going down he ran with all his strength but he dies. At the end we come to know that only 6 feet land a man need.

This shows that it doesn’t matter how much materialistic things we collect or earn, at the end the humans will need only land according to their height to bury them.


Thank you.

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