Describe the setting in "How Much Land Does a Man Need?".

The setting in this story is a country-life setting. Pahom and his wife live in the village where they are surrounded by another woman's land. They live the life of a peasant:

Though a peasant's life is not a fat one, it is a long one.
We shall never grow rich, but we shall always have enough to eat."

Pahom and wife own pigs, cows, horses, etc. They farm the land that belongs to someone else.

Eventually, Pahom buys some neighboring land that is out in the country.

Pahom chose out a farm of forty acres, some of it
wooded, and went to the lady to bargain for it.

However, this land is not enough for Pahom. Ultimately, Pahom hears about and visits the Bashkirs' land. This land is rich, lush, and plentiful.

"The land lies near a river, and the whole prairie is virgin soil."

Pahom can own all of the land he can walk around in one day. Sadly enough, Pahom begins his day's walk, including more and more of the fertile land. By the day's end, Pahom is running out of time. The sun is about to set. He begins rushing toward the hill, his starting and ending point. Pahom drops dead on the site. The only land he needs now is six feet, enough to be buried in.

Describe the setting in "How Much Land Does a Man Need?".

The context of this story is actually incredibly important for understanding what Tolstoy is trying to communicate. The story is set in a nineteenth century Russia where feudalism has been abandoned and thus former serfs now have the right to buy their own land. This was of course a major historical moment in Russian history, where serfs were no longer treated as the property of nobles but recognised as individuals in their own right. Tolstoy in this story seriously questions the extent to which this was a good and healthy development or not.

Thus it is that this story is set in the countryside, initially with a former serf and his family who rents his land from a landowner. However, as the story develops, the setting changes to ever bigger pieces of property as Pakhom engages on his rapid and rapacious desire to gain ever greater quantities of land. Lastly, the story ends in the land of the Bashkirs, a remote tribe in Russia, who have immense land. Through allowing the setting to change throughout the story Tolstoy seriously questions whether the apparent progress of Russia had actually been entirely beneficial or not.

What's an example of human nature in Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"

The term human nature refers to the ways in which people naturally behave, feel, and think, without any influences from society. These are behaviors, feelings, and thoughts that all human beings share, regardless of culture. One element of human nature found in Leo Tolstoy's short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is greed.

At first, the protagonist Poham only wants to own enough land to bring him financial security. When he hears his wife and sister-in-law bickering about which life is better, the peasant life or the urban life, Poham thinks to himself, "Our only trouble is that we haven't land enough. If I had plenty of land, I shouldn't fear the Devil himself!" (Ch. 1). Land brings financial prosperity; therefore, in saying the above, he is saying that if he had enough financial prosperity, he wouldn't be tempted into sinful behaviors by the Devil. Yet, the more land he acquires, the greedier he becomes.

At first, he purchases 40 acres from a wealthy landowner, along with other peasants in the village. But, when the neighbors begin quarreling and moving elsewhere, he imagines himself buying up his neighbors' land as well. This vision lasts until a peasant from the other side of the Volga comes to visit and tells him about all of the fertile, inexpensive land there. The peasant tempts him with the following:

The land was so good, he said, that the rye sown on it grew as high as a horse, and so thick that five cuts of sickle made a sheaf. One peasant, he said, had brought nothing with him but his bare hands, and now he had six horses and two cows of his own. (Ch. 3)

After hearing this, Pahom's greed for prosperity drives him to purchase 125 acres across the Volga; then, he nearly settles a contract to purchase another 1300 acres to grow more wheat. Either of these purchases could have provided him with plenty. Yet, his greed does not allow him to stop there. Instead, once he hears that inexpensive, fertile land could be purchased from the Bashkirs, he makes yet another deal that costs him his life.

How is human nature depicted in the short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"

In this story, greed is depicted as being a significant part of human nature. Pahom begins the story as a hard-working but poor man. When the opportunity comes to buy some land of his own, he does so and manages to do quite well for himself. However, when he learns that people are prospering even more in another community not far away, his "heart was filled with desire." Once he gets there, having sold his farm for profit, Pahom is "pleased with it all," but it does not take long for him to grow unsatisfied once again. He hears from a land dealer passing through that fertile and beautiful land belonging to the Bashkirs, far away, can be purchased incredibly cheaply. Again, he goes, and he learns that he may have, for one low price, all the land that he can enclose by foot in the space of a day. Pahom ends up trying so hard to get as much land as he possibly can that he perishes in the attempt to return before the sun sets. The greed inherent in his human nature overwhelms him; he is never satisfied, and he pays for his greed with his life.