s. When he focuses more on the aristocracy, as in War and Peace, Tolstoy does not judge them more harshly than the peasantry, but shows how there are good and bad aristocrats just as there are good and bad peasants. The man who lives selfishly will suffer because he has not lived a moral life, whether he is poor or rich.
In the story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?", Tolstoy portrays a peasant who never has enough land. His greed--or fear of economic insecurity--literally drives him to death. Perhaps Tolstoy is showing how the freeing of the serfs leads not to happiness but to greed.
The peasant Pakhom in this story is happy with his lot in life, until he begins to gather more and more land. He says in the beginning of the story, "Busy as we are from childhood tilling mother earth, we peasants have no time to let any nonsense settle in our heads" (Tolstoy "Land" 1). Once he begins to get more land, however, he loses contact with "mother earth" and sees land as property from which he can become rich. In the end, it kills him, showing
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