How Much Land Does a Man Need

Read “The Imp and the Crust,” another story by Tolstoy that is based on a folktale and also features the devil as a character. How does this story compare to “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” Do the stories have the same moral lesson? How do they differ?

Tolstoy’s belief at the time he wrote “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” was that literature should provide moral lessons that help people to live well. He thought that literature should be uplifting and communicate a simple, universal Christian truth; it should educate people and be intelligible to the common folk, not just the educated elites. He therefore thought much of Western art and literature was immoral and even rejected his own novel, Anna Karenina, which by common consent is one of the great 19th-century novels. Do Tolstoy’s views have merit, or are they too narrow? If you disagree, what role should literature play? If you agree, why?

Read the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:13-21. How does the parable reflect the events and the moral lesson of “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” What are the similarities and the differences?

With his envy, greed, and acquisitiveness, is Pahóm a man who stands out from the crowd, or is he more of an everyman figure? Does his bid to find security and contentment by acquiring more land resonate in modern Western society? How might the lessons of “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” apply to our 21st-century lives in affluent (or not so affluent) societies?

Is Pahóm to blame for wanting to better himself and his family? What is the difference between the desire for a better life and greed? How does one balance beneficial acquisition and acquisitiveness? At what point or points in the story could Pahóm have taken a different course?

Tolstoy eventually took up the radical position of opposing all private possession of land, which he believed exploited the labor of others. Is there any suggestion in “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” of this perspective, or is the story simply about the pitfalls of a certain attitude toward land ownership rather than about land ownership itself?

How might the story illustrate the saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”?

What does the presence of the Devil say about the story’s intended audience? Why must a supernatural agent tempt Pahóm into acquisitiveness? Would the story work just as well (or better) for a modern, secular reader if the Devil did not appear in it, or would that weaken the tale?