book report and refelection

BOOK REPORT AND REFLECTION Name: Course: Professor Name: (December 28, 2011) Book Report The book covered in this paper is “How much land does a man need?” by the author: Leo Tolstoy. The setting is in Russia during the late 1800’s; it is a short fiction parable that describes greed, devils and demons, ethics, and landlords. It is an informative and educative story of a man who forfeits all what he has, guided by his lust for land. The story teaches the readers to focus more on important things in life and not be led by selfishness, materialism, gluttony, peasantry or greed (Tolstoy, 1886). The tone is poetic and the mood is quiet, scary and emotional especially due to the devils character and also very fearful and full of anxiety. The location of the play is in the country Russia during the year 1886. The gluttonous feeling in the story is very evident as the character try to accumulate land so as to be satisfied in life; however the satisfaction is not guaranteed by the enormous wealth but leads to more problems. It acts as an eye opener for the reader that satisfaction and happiness never comes from worldly pleasures and wealth. The Characters in the story are Pahom, the Chief of the Bashkir’s and the Devil The roles and relationships of the characters are: - Pahom is a peasant protagonist who is always unsatisfied with the land he owns. He is the main character who struggles with land issues and his greed. The Bashkir’s represents simple minded people who remain satisfied with the land and live very humbly despite owning huge junks of land. The devil appears to ridicule Pahom in his dream as he had stated that if he had large tracks of land he would not be afraid of the devil. Plot/Action The story starts with Pahom co...