How Much Land Does a Man Need

Reading Check

1. The Devil (Part I)

2. Because they did not find Simon guilty of cutting down Pahóm’s tree (Part III)

3. “[T]he best dressing-gown and five pounds of tea” (Part VI)

4. The cost is 1000 rubles for the amount of land he can claim in a day. (Part VI)

5. He must return to his starting spot before sunset. (Various parts)

Short Answer

1. Pahóm overhears his wife and her sister arguing over the benefits of town life versus city life. When his wife comments that people who live in the city “are surrounded by temptations,” Pahóm remarks 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!” (Part I)

2. A landowner agrees to sell her property to the local peasants, offering them the opportunity to pay partially upfront and in the future. Pahóm “felt envious” as he sees his neighbors taking the offer, so he borrows money and sells some of his items to make the initial down payment. (Part II)

3. After hearing a firsthand account from a peasant about the abundance of land past the Volga, Pahóm moves his family there. He now has “three-times” the land as previously, and he is “ten times better off than he had been” with his land and cattle. (Parts III-IV)

4. Immediately before settling a purchase of freehold land, Pahóm learns from a “passing dealer” about cheap land where the Bashkir community resides. Based on the information from the tradespeople, he leaves his family and makes the journey alone to survey the potential purchase. (Parts IV-V)

5. As he falls asleep, Pahóm has a dream that outside his tent is the Chief, who then transforms first into the tradespeople, then the peasant from beyond the Volga, and finally the Devil. At the foot of the Devil is “a man barefoot, prostrate on the ground, with only trousers and a shirt on,” which, upon closer inspection, turns out to be himself. He then awakes “horror-struck” and thinks, “What things one does dream.” (Part VII)