A Man's Ambition

Though one man may live in the city, and another in the country side, neither is any further distant from both the vices and virtues of their own nature. In the parable How Much Land Does A Man Need   by Leo Tolstoy, this is something the main character Pakhom comes to find out. Out in the country, as a hard working farmer, Pakhom believes himself to be a man set apart from the foolishness of upper-class society. Listening to his wife and her sister quibble about the setting of their lives, he is sure that he is overall much better off, as is his wife, but still has one wish; a bit more land. Unfortunately for him, the Devil was lurking behind the stove and decides to give Pakhom all he wanted only to take it all away. 

I noticed the theme of ambition appear in the beginning paragraphs when Pakhom's wife mentions her weariness of such a nature, as she says, "yet you, on the other hand," to her sister, "with all your fine living, must either do a very large trade indeed or be ruined. You know the proverb: 'Loss is Gain's elder brother'"(pg. 1). In this moment Pakhom's wife expresses her distaste for a lifestyle that requires a betting of all one has for a gain that is quite dependent upon others. Such is the lifestyle of ambitious men, taking risks to leap from one level to the next, never-minding the pit below, either reaching their mark or falling to their demise. Pakhom's wife much prefers the certainty of earning what she works as she defends her lifestyle by saying,"The peasant's stomach may be thin, but it is long. That is to say, he may never be rich, yet he will always have enough" and, "It's like this with us. Though life may be hard, the land is at least our own, and we do not need to bow and scrape to anyone" (pg. 2). Ambitious men rely upon the word of other men and the state of their society which are both very fickle things indeed; Pakhom's wife is sure that earning your keep from your own land is a far better way to live. Finally she remarks that her sister is living in a town of scandal saying, "Today all may be well with you, but tomorrow the evil eye may look upon you, and your husband find himself tempted away by cards or wine or some light-of-love, and you and yours find yourselves ruined" (pg. 2). It is in this moment that both the Devil and Pakhom are most keenly attuned to the conversation. Pakhom speaks up and mentions his satisfaction with his life yet only wishes he had more land.

This last remark by Pakhom's wife is the most apparent line of foreshadowing for this tale, as she thinks that only the city life could ever tempt a man away from his family in search for more gain, as if the Devil only lurked in the city and did not pay a visit to each and every man of the earth.

When Pakhom claimed that more land would make a fearless and impenetrable man, that even the Devil could not get to him, such bragging and boasting persuaded the Devil to take interest, for only the Devil insights the vices of men. So from then on the Devil put everything directly in Pakhom's hands and he succeeded again and again in achieving wealth. In his final attempt to gain as much land as he needed, the Bashkirs allowed him to have as much land as he could walk on in a day. With all of his boosted pride and swollen ambition Pakhom could not just take what he needed to do well for himself and his family, he needed to take what would make him the most profitable man in the country. Only in the last minutes of Pakhom's life did he realize his relentless ambition wasn't going to make him the wealthiest man alive but instead was actually going to kill him.