52 pages • 1 hour read
Leo TolstoyHow Much Land Does a Man Need
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1886A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Literary Devices
Irony
There are various forms of literary irony, including situational irony, in which events unfold in a way that is contrary to what one might reasonably expect to happen. This kind of irony first occurs in Part 1. Pahóm’s wife expresses the view that people who live prosperously in the towns are likely to be tempted by the Devil, unlike peasants who live in the country; Pahóm agrees with her. The irony is that it is the peasant, Pahóm, who succumbs to temptation. His statement that “we peasants have no time to let any nonsense settle in our heads” turns out to be the opposite of the truth (208), as all his plans to acquire more land originate with the very being he says he does not fear—the Devil. All the while Pahóm is behaving in what he thinks is the best possible way, expanding his material holdings, he is in fact digging his own grave.
Irony therefore runs through the entire story: In accumulating more and more without understanding the implications of what he is doing, Pahóm ends up with nothing. This is illustrated concisely when his greed gets him into difficulties marking out his square of Bashkir land. He spurs himself on, thinking, “an hour to suffer, a life-time to live” (224). The irony is that he has got it exactly the wrong way round: In fact, he has an hour to live and an eternity to suffer, since the Devil, having got the better of him, will now claim his soul. The final irony occurs in the last line, after Pahóm has died and been buried. Pahóm has spent the last few years of his life hungering for more and more land, but “[s]ix feet from his head to his heels [is] all he need[s]” (226).
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing occurs when something—an event, an image, a simile, something a character says, etc.—suggests how later events may turn out. Sometimes the significance of the foreshadowing (or even its existence) only becomes apparent in retrospect. For example, when the Devil announces his intention of gaining power over Pahóm, this foreshadows later events, including the end of the story. Foreshadowing also occurs through Pahóm’s dream, which tells the essential story of Pahóm’s enslavement by the Devil and previews his death. Tolstoy intends this foreshadowing to register with the reader even as it eludes Pahóm, who is so caught up in his fantasies that he misses the meaning of the dream. Toward the end of the story, foreshadowing occurs with an ironic twist when Pahóm stops to dig a hole to mark the land he is claiming. He does this no less than five times, foreshadowing the creation of his grave and symbolizing his own role in digging it.
Setting
The story is set in rural Russia in the second half of the 19th century, sometime after the freeing of the serfs in 1861. Over the course of the story, Tolstoy gives a number of details that outline the rural, agricultural world that the peasant and later landowner Pahóm lives in. Peasants belong to communes that portion out land to individual members. Pahóm’s first property is a 40-acre farm, some of which is wooded. He ploughs and sows it, growing corn, making hay, cutting down trees, and maintaining cattle. A district court settles disputes with neighbors. When Pahóm moves to the settlement beyond the Volga, he has plenty of arable land and gets good crops of wheat, as well as pastures for his cattle. The wheat is sown for two or three years, after which the land lies fallow until prairie grass covers it. Later, as an experienced farmer, Pahóm is able to quickly assess the quality of the land the Bashkirs are willing to sell. When he sees a damp hollow, for example, he wants to include it in his land because he thinks it would be good for growing flax. He plans to buy ox-teams and hire two laborers to work the best land while selling off or leasing the poorer land to peasants.
Point of View
Point of view refers to the viewpoint from which a story unfolds. This story is told by a limited third-person narrator—that is, a narrator who has insight primarily into one character, Pahóm. The narrator can thus describe not only what Pahóm says and does but also what he thinks and feels (indeed, Pahóm’s thoughts are a major part of the story). The narrator has only occasional knowledge of what other characters think and feel. For example, the narrator knows that the Devil was pleased to hear of Pahóm’s boast because it gives him a means of tempting Pahóm. The limited point of view is particularly noticeable in the parts that feature the Bashkirs, in which the Chief remains a jovial but enigmatic figure because the narrator does not penetrate his inner thoughts and feelings. The reader must therefore understand the Chief solely through what he says and does, as well as how others react to him.
Related Titles
By Leo Tolstoy
