What is the moral lesson of Tolstoy’s How Much Land Does a Man Need?

Question by Jenah: What is the moral lesson that Leo Tolstoy’s How Much Land Does a Man Need teaches?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Matthew T
Tolstoy speaks about our human nature of greed. I’ve forgotten the main character’s name but the circumstances bring out his greedy nature (which we all possess).

The nature of greed is that it is never satisfied. Greed is tied to the concept of self worth. We seek things and power because we know that people will then praise and admire us and that is how we find our self worth, i.e. in the eyes of others. But people soon forget our past accomplishments and we have to keep on seeking new things to keep up our self worth.

Tolstoy shows us how it will all end for all of us, i.e the grave. We have to find our self worth in some other way other than gathering possessions and power. When we were children, we got out self worth simply from the love of our parents. We didn’t have to earn it. Tolstoy tells us about the true nature of love in another short story, “Where Love Is, There God Is Also” which you can find on the internet at:

http://www1.umn.edu/lol-russ/PopLit/where_love_is,_there_is_god_also.htm

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