How Much Land Does A Man Need Essay -- essays research papers

The story, â€Å"How Much Land Does a Man Need?†, by Leo Tolstoy is a story about Americans taking advantage of the Indians. Although it is set in Russia, it is about the greed that many people had at the time and the outcome of that greed. The opening scene represents the Europeans coming over to America. During that time, the mid-1800’s, the Europeans were rich and their relatives in America were poor. The younger sister in the story represents the Americans and the older sister represents the Europeans. The poor Americans, like the younger sister in the story, did not mind having to work hard all the time. They enjoyed their freedom and security. Even though they were content, it wasn’t complete. In the story, Pahom agrees with his peasant wife but wishes they had more land to work with. â€Å"Our only trouble is that we haven’t land enough. If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!† (p 212) The devil here is greed itself. It is here that we see the greed begin to manifest, as it did in Americans over a hundred years ago. The story goes on and we see Pahom becoming agitated the he has to pay fines all the time because of his animals wandering. This represents the American people having to pay fines, such as taxes and tariffs, to the government in the mid-1800’s. Pahom lives in a commune and some of the people have begun to buy their own tracts of land. He sees this and decides that it would be a good idea if he did the same thing. He was worried that if he didn...