more and more land, but in the end, he is so greedy that he does not consider whether his attempts to gain more land are even feasible for him physically. He pushes himself so hard, thinking only of what he might be able to gain, that he kills himself in the effort.

This, then, leads us on to the second key theme of the story, as underlined by the concluding statement that all the land Pahom needed in the end was the amount that would serve for his grave. The story is telling us that greed is so abhorrent and so pointless not only because it has a corrupting effect on the character, as it is shown to have on Pahom’s, but also because it does not actually amass anything that is permanent. At the end of the story, Pahom has worked so hard and caused so much damage to himself that he has caused his own premature death, but nothing of what he has gained in life will belong to him in death. His greed and hard work has ultimately benefited him nothing.

The answer to the question posed in the title of Tolstoy's short story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” is “Just enough to bury your body.” You can't take it with you, as the saying goes, and so it's pointless to amass a large amount of stuff, whether it's antiques, gadgets, objects of art, or, in the case of Pahom, tracts of land.

Pahom is a Russian peasant who can't stop buying up more and more land. No matter how much land he buys, it's never enough. He remains completely unsatisfied by his purchases, to the extent that his growing land wealth never seems to bring him any happiness.

Pahom's soul has become corrupted by greed to such an extent that he no longer knows what's in his best interests. In a classic example of the tail wagging the dog, greed has got the better of Pahom; it has taken him over to such an extent that he's become its slave, somewhat ironic given that he's only recently been freed from serfdom.

The dangers of greed ultimately lead to Pahom's death. Given what he believes to be the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to own as much Bashkir land as he can traverse in a single day, Pahom ends up dropping down dead as he tries to grab as much acreage as he can get his greedy little hands on.

“How Much Land Does a Man Need?” is a tale of the theme of greed.  The main character, Pahom, is, at the beginning of the story, a peasant who places all his value on material representations of wealth, and who is therefore unhappy.  And so his family works together to earn the money to buy a plot of land, and they are successful, and this land provides happiness for Pahom for a time.  Soon, however, he begins to desire more space and more profit, and sells his land for a larger plot, upon which the same thing happens – he is happy for a time, but soon begins to crave more.  So we can say that one theme of the story is that greed for material gain does not provide eternal happiness.  If a person looks outside himself for happiness, he will never be satisfied with what he has, and will eventually reach too far and face his downfall.

This is what happens to Pahom, who is given the task by a tribal people of marking out any area of land, on foot, before the setting of the sun.  If he returns to where he started in the allotted time, he can have the ground he covered for a very cheap price.  Pahom’s reason is overthrown by his greed, and instead of assuring himself plenty of time he walks blindly around the best corners of the land, not noticing that he is running out of time until it is too late.  He makes it back to where he started, and the chief of the tribe is willing to make a concession despite the fact that he was a few minutes late – unfortunately, however, Pahom has killed himself in his efforts.  And in the end, once Pahom was buried, “Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.”

This ironic ending note is a testament to the futility of amassing any excessive amount of wealth or assets, for what good is it all if it destroys a man?  In the end a very humble plot of land is all a man has truly earned – that grave that equalizes any one life with the next.  Better to be satisfied with humble gains from the beginning, and be free to appreciate and celebrate what you have rather than suffer with the chains of greed around one’s ankles.

In the story “How Much Land Does a Man Need?,” Tolstoy describes human nature through what is essentially a parable. The main character, Pahom, is a peasant that works the land for a living. He is entangled with pride. He believes that he will fear no one and nothing if he posses more land. In his lust for more property, he eventually loses himself and his life.

The idea that Tolstoy puts forward for human nature at the beginning of the story is that when humankind has the opportunity to sin, chase the lusts of the flesh, he will pursue them to his destruction. This message is made clear by Pahom’s wife when she says,

But you, in your towns, are surrounded by temptations; today all may be right, but tomorrow the Evil One may tempt your husband with cards, wine, or women, and all will go to ruin. Don't such things happen often enough?

The younger sister makes this point in the face of the life of luxury that her sister has.

Pahom falls into the trap of human nature. He thinks to himself,

Busy as we are from childhood tilling Mother Earth, we peasants have no time to let any nonsense settle in our heads. Our only trouble is that we haven't land enough. If I had plenty of land, I shouldn't fear the Devil himself!

He misses the point of his wife—that if he had enough land he would be tempted to get more, it is the simple life itself that keeps him virtuous. Pahom is then ripe for the temptation of the devil, who makes it a point to bring him down with his desire for land.

Pahom ends up pursuing more and more land, having to leave his original community and finding people who are “simple” who will sell him a large, cheap tract. They make him a deal that he can have as much land as he wants for 1,000 roubles if he can mark it out himself and get back to the original spot. He gets too greedy and becomes lost and overcome, eventually seeing the people he is buying from before collapsing dead. The irony of the final moment is that he is buried in a six-foot grave, just enough land for him.

Tolstoy makes a point about how the primary function of humans is towards self-destruction. It is work and business that keeps us virtuous, but when given to luxury, wealth, or comfort, we will naturally seek things that destroy us. In that sense, Pahom’s wife is not only right but also wise for the things she says at the beginning of the story.

Pahom had numerous opportunities to stop his quest for more land when he already had a substantial lot to his name. He forgot where he came from and was blinded by the luster of extreme wealth. The author used Pahom to express his idea about human nature in relation to wealth and power. It is human to aspire for better and have ambition to succeed. However, ambition and aspiration, if not checked, would lead to a person’s downfall and destruction.

Pahom believed that more land would solve his issues, and the devil took advantage of his desires. The devil turned Pahom’s ambitions into greed, which eventually led to his demise. Pahom accepted the deal to walk on the land for a day to mark his allocation. However, he allowed greed to take over and tried to cover more distance than he could manage. Pahom died of exhaustion, leaving behind all the land he ever wanted.

"How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy is a parable, designed to teach the reader a lesson. In this case, Tolstoy uses the main character (protagonist), Pahom, to demonstrate that money and land do not equal happiness and contentment.

Pahom is a peasant farmer who likes living in the country; he believes the only thing that would make him happier is if he had more land. In fact, he boasts that “If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!” Unfortunately for Pahom, the devil overhears him and decides to put Pahom to the test.

First Pahom's village gets the opportunity to purchase three hundred acres of land and they try to buy it as a community; however, the devil makes sure the villagers are not able to come to a collective agreement. Pahom buys forty acres of land and, according to his vow, he should have been content. And he was, until his neighbors' animals began encroaching on his land; Pahom takes his neighbors to court and loses both his suit and the respect of his neighbors.

Soon Pahom owns much more land, but he is still not content. The devil, in the disguise of a tradesman, tells Pahom about an opportunity to purchase a lot of land for very little money. and Pahom's greed determines his course.

The Bashkir tribal chiefs meet with Pahom, and they obviously sense his greed and see an opportunity for their own amusement, if nothing else. They agree to let Pahom have all the land he can walk in one day for a thousand rubles; the only stipulation is that he must return to his starting spot by the end of the day.

Pahom, as has been well established, is greedy and he over-calculates how much land he can reasonably walk in a day. (He had been hoping to get enough land that he could sell some parcels of it to others and make even more money.) As the end of the day draws near, Pahom realizes he can only get back to his starting point by running with great effort. 

He does arrive at his beginning spot, but he is nearly spent. He realizes the tradesman was actually the devil, and he sees the tribal chief laughing heartily at Pahom's expense. Pahom dies. As some men begin digging him a grave, the question asked in the title of the story is finally answered: “Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.” Just enough land in which to be buried. 

What an excellent answer by rahrak. The answer to the question Leo Tolstoy poses in "How Much Land Does a Man Need" is simple, but learning that answer comes at a significant cost for Pahom, the peasant protagonist of the story. It all begins with an argument over whether life is better in the country or in the city. Pahom is a peasant and believes peasant life in the country is the best in every way but one: "Our only trouble is that we haven't land enough. If I had plenty of land, I shouldn't fear the Devil himself!"

Though he only expressed this as a thought, he was overheard by a serious foe, and it will soon be used against him without his knowing. 

[T]he Devil had been sitting behind the oven, and had heard all that was said. He was pleased that [Pahom] had said that if he had plenty of land he would not fear the Devil himself. "All right," thought the Devil. "We will have a tussle. I'll give you land enough; and by means of that land I will get you into my power."

Through a series of events, Pahom becomes a wealthy landowner. Though his intentions were generous and beneficent when he first began to acquire land, soon Pahom is constantly dissatisfied with what he has and falls for every trick of the devil which comes before him. Every time he is offered more land, he wants it, and he never stops to recognize the devil's hand manipulating him because of those rash words spoken in his kitchen not so long ago.

The final test offered up to Pahom by the devil is almost too good to be true, which of course should have caused Pahom to think twice before accepting the offer. For a thousand rubles, Pahom can have all the land he can walk in one day; he simply has to return to his starting spot by the end of the day. Pahom spends the night beofre planning his strategy: he will walk thirty-five miles, earning himself enough land to meet his own needs as well as to earn a considerable profit by selling parcels of the land to his neighbors.

As one might imagine, Pahom is unable to complete his greedy and overambitious plan except by exerting himself literally to death. He should have recognized the devil's hand in this (literally recognized him, as he was the one who gave Pahom the tip on this land), but he was too consumed by greed to be cautious or even sensible. It is a lesson he should have learned, but he did not.

We all understand the principle that greed can kill a person, but in this story that is a literal truth. In the end, the only land Pahom needs  is the six feet of land it takes to bury him. The larger point for all of us, of course, is that what we want is not the same as what we need (note that the question asks about needing rather than wanting) and we must keep our greedy impulses in check or they may kill us, either literally or figuratively. If Pahom had learned this lesson, he would not have wasted his life in the pursuit of something so ultimately meaningless. 

If you would like more help with this story, please refer to the excellent eNotes sites linked below. 

Tolstoy used a rural setting and made a peasant the protagonist in this tale of greed because his readers could relate to such a character. Russia in Tolstoy's time was divided between wealthy aristocrats and laboring peasants with a small middle class. Most readers would not be able to relate to a tale of an aristocrat, but readers could relate to a laborer, like them, who wanted to be rich or claim land. 

The story is told in skaz form, which is a Russian oral tradition of storytelling that features a peasant and informal language. Tolstoy used this tradition to tell his tale, which resembles a parable in form. A parable is a simple story that offers a lesson anyone is capable of understanding. To make his story more accessible to his audience, Tolstoy featured a simple, rural everyman who experiences the consequences of unfettered greed. 

One reason why Leo Tolstoy characterized his protagonist as a peasant in his short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is because peasants always face difficult lives of labor, yet, at the same time, society was changing for the Russian peasant at the time Tolstoy published his story in 1886.

The year 1886 was in the midst of Russia's industrial revolution, which started in the middle of the 19th century. Modernized agricultural techniques were integral to industrial revolutions in all countries. As the peasants began improving their farming techniques for mass production, they also began increasing in wealth, as depicted in the story. Tolstoy saw that, just as the industrial revolution brought a materialistic viewpoint to the people of all nations, the industrial revolution was equally affecting the Russian peasantry with greed and materialism. Hence, Tolstoy set his story in an agricultural backdrop, in the midst of the industrial revolution, in order to warn of the dangers of materialistic greed that industrialization was bringing with it.

Serfdom in the Russian Empire can be traced back to the 11th century. By the 16th century, most peasants were serfs. The feudal Russian economy was based on agrarian principles and serfs were required by law to work the lands that their lords owned. The conditions for peasants were poor—their exhaustive work was meant solely for the profit of their lord and they themselves could be bought and sold—they had very limited property and personal rights. Serfdom was abolished in 1861 by Tsar Alexander II who is widely praised for freeing the 23 million serfs and other significant reforms that effectively modernized Russia.

Tolstoy wrote How Much Land Does A Man Need? twenty-five years after the abolition of serfdom. The story takes place after the laws were changed when peasants were allowed to start owning their own land which was viewed as an opportunity to control one’s own destiny. Tolstoy’s story explores some of the reverberations of the reforms. Although the serfs were freed, life was still an uphill battle—good land was limited, and peasants had to pay high redemption taxes that frequently took most of their income to pay.

How Much Land Does A Man Need? is a cautionary tale about Pakhom, a recently freed serf. It illustrates the potential negative effects of the new system through Pakhom, who becomes obsessed with gaining land. Pakhom associates land with security and comfort, saying “If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself,” The Devil tells Pakhom that he will give Pakhom all the land he desires, but will still snatch everything away. As Pakhom’s obsession grows, he becomes corrupted by selfishness and the need for material belongings. Ultimately, his quest for an excessive amount of land leads to his death and the Devil wins out.

The emancipation of the serfs by Tsar Alexander II in 1861 allowed millions of Russian peasants to own land for the first time. Inevitably, many of those wanted more than just a neat little plot to call their own; they wanted to become substantial landowners in their own right. It is this attitude that Tolstoy is satirizing in the character of Pahom in "How Much Land Does A Man Need?"

To be sure, Tolstoy is not suggesting that emancipation was wrong; he's simply drawing our attention to some of its more regrettable consequences. Pahom, like a growing number of Russian peasants, has come to see land as a source of wealth, an object to be controlled and exploited for gain. In doing so, he is breaking the almost mystical relationship to the soil that Tolstoy believes is the correct one in relation to land. In seeing land as a source of wealth, Pahom is cutting himself off from his roots; in a spiritual sense he is homeless, despite his substantial land-holdings. Tolstoy's story stands as a warning of the unintended consequences of enlightened legislation. Emancipation may have liberated the serfs, but in the process, far too many of them have lost their spiritual freedom.

Tolstoy wrote this excellent tale against a backdrop of massive changes in 19th century Russia. Until the emancipation of Russian serfs by Czar Alexander II, these peasants were virtual slaves of landowners and aristocrats. They could be bought or sold and were not allowed to own property. Tolstoy wrote this story after these serfs had already had their freedom for 25 years. They now had rights and could own land. Certainly this was progress, and Tolstoy, who was himself an ardent reformer in Russia, would never wish a reversal of the decree, yet in this parable we see Tolstoy ask the question - with often black humour - of whether the peasants' progress brought changes they would regret.

This sets the stage for the parable that is contained within this story and the harsh warning of unchecked materialism is clearly established through the fate of Pahom and his sad death.

The ultimate answer, at least implied by Tolstoy, is that a man does not need any land at all.

In the latter part of his life, Tolstoy became devoted to spiritual values and the ideal of an ascetic lifestyle in which he viewed physical pleasures as evil. Material possessions, he came to believe, are meaningless in comparison with the spiritual connection to God that one must seek. Though a wealthy landowner himself, he wore a peasant's blouse and went to work in the fields alongside the farm laborers he employed, just as his protagonist Levin in Anna Karenina attempts to do. He also relinquished the copyrights to his books. Altogether, these acts were an attempt to deny the material world, in preparation for the next life.

His protagonist in "How much Land does a Man Need?" ends up killing himself because he wants more and more land, and in trying to claim it, dies through exhaustion. Even a more moderate theme than a complete denial of material ownership is that one should be happy with the limitations God imposes upon man. If one seeks more than one needs, the result is failure and death.

The simple answer to the first question is as follows: just enough to be buried in. You can't take it with you, as they say, and that applies as much to vast landholdings as it does to material possessions. But Pahom doesn't seem to understand this. He's so obsessed by the acquisition of land, so blinded by greed, that he eventually comes to grief over it.

In telling his story, Tolstoy is railing against what he sees as the grasping materialism of contemporary society, especially among the peasants. With the abolition of serfdom in Russia, many peasants sought to use their newly-won freedom to become landowners. In acquiring land, however, they often became disconnected from the soil, the land on which they had been born and where they had worked all their lives. Tolstoy supported the abolition of serfdom, but he was worried that peasants would now make the same mistake as their former masters and treat land as just another commodity to be bought and sold for profit. Tolstoy strongly believed that the almost mystical connection that had previously bound peasants to the soil was in danger of being lost forever, and he uses the tragic case of Pahom as a salutary warning.

Tolstoy was very strongly influenced by the ideas of the American reformer Henry George, who was initially influenced by the British philosopher Herbert Spencer. Henry George in his chief work Progress and Poverty  held that no one was entitled to own any part of the earth, that it should be common property like the sea and the sky. The government should rent out the land and derive its entire income from that single source. People, according to George and Tolstoy, will tend to acquire more land than they can possibly use and then force others to pay them for the use of it. That is what happens notoriously with sharecropping and explains why sharecroppers are usually so poor. Tolstoy believed that if men only took as much land as they could use, there would be enough for everybody, and poverty would be reduced or eliminated. In Pahom, the protagonist of "How Much Land Does a Man Need?", Tolstoy is mainly exhibiting the greed and selfishness inherent in human nature.

In this story, Pahom becomes greedy and cannot obtain enough land to satisfy himself. He buys more and more land. Still, he cannot be satisfied. He hears of great land in the land of the Bashkirs. He learns that he can purchase all the land he can walk aorund in one day, from sun up to sun down. 

The Bashkirs are clever. They realize that human nature is often greedy and selfish. They realize that any man who has the option to walk around all the land he can and claim it in one day will lead a greedy, selfish man to try and obtain more land than he possibly can in one day. 

Pahom keeps extending his land area and becomes exhausted in his attemp to get back to the starting point by sundown. Pahom tried to cover too much land area and drops dead as he arrives back to the starting point. He learns the hard way that a man only "needs" enough land to be buried in. The Bashkirs get all of his money and they keep their land. They bury Pahom with pleasure. Pahom loses his life due to his greed for more and more land:

Pahom’s servant picks up the spade with which Pahom had been marking his land and digs a grave in which to bury him: “Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.”

Tolstoy became religious and philosophical in his later years and came to believe in the Christian virtues of humility and simplicity. He titled his story in the form of a question because he wanted his reader to think about it. If a man only claimed as much land as he actually required to provide for himself and his family, he could get by with only a few acres, and there would be plenty of land for everybody. But men tend to be greedy and selfish. They fail to realize that life is very short and that much of their hard work and worry and stress will end up getting them nothing but trouble and frustration. In the end a man only needs enough land to provide a grave for himself, an area about six feet long and three feet wide. Thoreau wrote inWaldenthat "most men lead lives of quiet desperation," and Tolstoy would have heartily agreed with him. Many of the great religious leaders have chosen to live without any possessions. Tolstoy chose a brilliant way of illustrating his thesis. We can visualize this fairly typical mortal trying to take in more and more land as he tries to walk around it in a day. Tolstoy lived on the land and had a strong feeling for the land with all its beauty and variety. This comes out in his story and makes it vivid and real. We can feel the heat and visualize the setting sun. This is due as much to Tolstoy's sincerity as to his artistic ability.

The story should be understood against the historical backdrop of the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 by the Russian Tsar Alexander II. Once the serfs had been freed from control by their former masters, many of them naturally wanted to own land for themselves. Tolstoy supported emancipation, but at the same time he was worried that it would lead to peasants somehow losing their soul, severing their almost sacred connection to the soil by treating land as nothing more than an object, an economic commodity to be bought and sold.

That's precisely how Pahom comes to look upon the ground beneath his feet. His insatiable greed for land takes him far away from his ancestral homeland, both literally and metaphorically. Though the proud owner of many acres of valuable land, Pahom is spiritually homeless, and his greed causes the death of his soul long before it leads to his physical demise.

The story seeks to educate the reader about the dangers of greed and unchecked desires. According to Pahom, land was the answer to all his troubles. During the conversation with his wife and sister-in-law, he boasted that with more land, he would not fear the devil himself. Pahom did not consider that there were other important things in life, and the devil took advantage of his weakness. Pahom was unaware that wealth came at a price; in his case, the price was his soul. The devil gave Pahom the opportunity to acquire land, which he desperately wanted. Pahom was ungrateful for what he received, however, and became greedy. He wanted more land, and his desire led him to make the wrong decisions, which eventually led to his death.

To write an essay, you first need to devise a thesis—an opinion you can defend—about the story. A thesis has to be arguable (an opinion) and defensible: you need to find quotes that support it.

One area around which you could develop a thesis would be greed. Tolstoy seems to be illustrating that we destroy ourselves when we get too greedy. He seems to be saying we need very little in life.

You could argue that greed destroys Pahom because he puts too much security in money and not enough in God. Because he worships money in the form of land he can't control, his desire to have more and more land.

Once you have your thesis, you can start pulling quotes that support it, such as Pahom's quote that he would not fear the devil if he had land enough to feel secure. You could then use the following quote to reveal how greed grasps him:

Pahom's heart kindled with desire. He thought: "Why should I suffer in this narrow hole, if one can live so well elsewhere? I will sell my land and my homestead here, and with the money I will start afresh over there and get everything new. In this crowded place one is always having trouble. But I must first go and find out all about it myself.

The above quote shows Pahom's increasing discontent as he acquires more and more. The more he gets, the more he wants.

A quote that shows he has overreached would be the following:

"What shall I do," he thought again, "I have grasped too much, and ruined the whole affair."

It is good to end an essay with an added twist. You might consider why the quote from the story about a man needing only six feet of land (enough for a coffin) has become so famous.

Another idea to consider is the following: why did Tolstoy write this as a fable, with the Devil as character, rather than as the realistic fiction for which he is famous?

Tolstoy's short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is a cautionary tale focusing on greed and the cost of wasting time chasing more instead of enjoying what we have now.

There are several ways to address the work in an essay.  Most essays focusing on other written works are critical essays briefly summarizing the content and commenting on the piece.  To begin, you will need to determine a thesis.  The simplest thesis statement is a comment on the intention of the work.  The goal throughout the essay is to defend your position.

The opening of the work sets the scene for the entire story.  The Devil tempts Pakhom through the introduction of embellishments about available land.  The scene comments on unseen forces eager to woo unsuspecting or foolish people into believing wild tales of a better life somewhere else.

As the story progresses, Pakhom is overcome with envy as those around him are buying land.  He buys land and it seems as if he is to be content.  However, he becomes angry when his land is violated by his neighbors and files grievances against them.  Tolstoy may have been commenting on the lack of compassion by landowners.  Again, envy comes to play when a traveling peasant brings news of a wide open space where Pakhom could own much land.

Eventually, Pakhom made his way to an area controlled by the Bashkirs who promised him as much land as he could cover by walking in one day.  The deal sounded too good to be true, another commentary on foolish investments by Tolstoy.  Pakhom walks the land and realizes too late he will not return in time to seal the deal.  Rather than cut his losses, he exerts himself until he falls and dies at the finish line.  He is buried by his slave and Tolstoy closes out the story with the explanation that all the land Pakhom needed was six feet from head to toe.

Throughout the work, Tolstoy is giving clues and commentary on the reaction to envy, greed and failure.  As you go through the story, summarize a few paragraphs and comment on how Tolstoy used the plot to further his intention of commenting on greed.

I've included a rough sketch of how to set up your essay and how much of the page you should use to address each area.

Essay Plan
Page One:  1/3 Introduction (Include thesis statement); 1/3 Summarize Chapters 1 & 2; 1/3 Comment on how the plot moves (envy, greed, etc.)
Page Two: 2/3 Summarize Chapters 3 -5; 1/3 Comment on the plot
Page Three: 2/3 Summarize Chapters 6-8
1/3 Comment on the plot
Page Four: 1/3 Summarize Chapter 9; 1/3 Comment on plot; 1/3 Closing remarks (how relevant is the story? how did it make you feel? did you enjoy it?)

Let us remember that a simile is an example of figurative language where two things are compared to one another by using the word "like" or "as." It is different from a metaphor, which likewise compares two things, but asserts a direct comparison without those two words. Examining this text therefore, there are two main places where similes are used. The first is when Pahom first hears about the Bashir tribe who are selling so much land for so little. The dealer who tells him about this describes them, saying:

"They are as simple as sheep, and land can be got almost for nothing."

Note how the comparison here emphasises the simplicity of the Bashir tribe, suggesting they are somewhat stupid and have no understanding of the value of their land.

Secondly, when Pahom views the land he hopes to gain from the Bashir, similes are used to describe its fertility:

Pahom's eyes glistened: It was all virgin soil, as flat as the palm of your hand, as black as the seed of a poppy, and in the hollows different kinds of grasses grew breast high.

These comparisons all serve to highlight the fertile nature of the land, making his desperation to gain as much of it as possible during his day's walk acute.

To understand the story it is important to know a bit more about the setting - historically and culturally. The story is set in a time just after feudalism was abandoned. Feudalism was a way of ordering society which mean that peasants were nothing more than slaves to their landlords. Peasants could be traded and were not allowed to buy property. Tolstoy wrote this story 25 years after the emancipation of the peasants. Tolstoy was a reformer who aggressively campaigned for the amelioration of conditions for peasants, and so obviously he did not wish a return into the state of bondage for the peasants. However, this parable allows him to explore the question of the peasants' progress and whether the peasants truly were better off for their freedom and the ability to buy land. A key quote in the story that can be viewed as relating to this theme is "Loss and gain are brothers twain". Any change can bring both good and bad to a group, Tolstoy seems to be suggesting, and with a rather black humour he establishes this in the case of the peasants.

The purpose of a review, also called a critical review, is to evaluate the quality of any text. To evaluate the text, you analyze the text to look for strengths and weaknesses.

A critical review begins with a very brief summary. The summary should focus on identifying the central theme of the story and what key events help develop that central theme. It can be said that the central theme in Leo Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" concerns the consequence of greed. To illustrate the consequences of greed, the protagonist Pahom is tempted to purchase more and more land at cheaper prices. He is finally offered the greatest amount of land at what he thinks is the cheapest price yet--he can purchase as much land as he can claim on foot for one thousand roubles. Yet, he overestimates how much walking he can physically endure and how long it will take him, which costs him his life.

After briefly summarizing the story, you would next write your evaluation based on your analysis. To analyze the story, look at the literary devices and literary elements Tolstoy uses to develop his theme. Literary elements are all elements that are essential for telling a story such as plot, characters, and theme, whereas literary devices are the extra goodies authors use to develop the work and theme such as figurative language, symbolism, and foreshadowing. As you analyze these things, ask yourself if Tolstoy uses them well.

You can also ask yourself questions like the following:
Are the characters believable? Is the plot believable? Is the plot overly predictable? Is the story memorable? Is the message good but the story weak in some way?