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How Much Land Does A Man Need? By Leo Tolstoy

The Greed of Americans During Westward Expansion

The story, "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.
"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't act soon, he
would miss his chance. He wouldn't have to pay any fines
and could keep all the money he makes. The more people
heard about it, the more they wanted it for themselves.
Pahom finally gets his own land and is happy with it.
Inevitably, some problems arise with Pahom's land.
Other people's animals were getting onto land and ruining
his crops. At first he just put up with it....