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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.
Short Answer Questions
1. When Pahom feels "aggrieved," what is he feeling?
2. In which situation might someone "grease your palm"?
3. What does Pahom's wife say may happen to a man in town?
4. What problem does the new steward create for the local peasants?
5. Which character thinks "I'll give you land enough; and by means of that land I will get you into my power"?
Short Essay Questions
1. In Chapter I, what is ironic about where Pahom is while he listens to his wife and her sister talk?
2. Pahom is most angry at the neighbor who has cut down his trees because whoever it was did not just take one or two trees but instead cut down a whole clump of trees. Why does this make Pahom angry, and what is ironic about his anger?
3. What changes the relationship between the woman who owns land near the village and the peasants, and how does the relationship change?
4. What sacrifices do Pahom and his family make for the first plot of land that they buy?
5. In what two ways is Pahom's first decision to buy land different from his later decisions?
6. What sequence of events with Simon follows Pahom's discovery of the stripped trees?
7. How does Pahom's relationship with his community change, and what are two specific pieces of evidence for this change?
8. In Chapter I, what is ironic about the conversation between the two sisters?
9. When the devil overhears Pahom's thoughts, what does he vow to do?
10. What prevents the peasants from buying the nearby landowner's land as a group instead of as individuals?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
Why does Pahom ignore the dream he has about the devil laughing at him? Write an essay in which you give both textual evidence and psychological reasoning to explain why he would ignore a warning like this.
Essay Topic 2
In the seventeenth century, the Cavalier poet Robert Herrick wrote a two-line poem about poverty:
Who with a little cannot be content,
Endures an everlasting punishment.
Write an essay in which you explain the meaning of Herrick's poem and discuss how his theme connects to Tolstoy's story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"
Essay Topic 3
At the beginning of Chapter II, the reader learns that "Close to the village there lived a lady, a small landowner, who had an estate of about three hundred acres. She had always lived on good terms with the peasants...." Write an essay in which you explain how this detail comments on Pahom's subsequent difficulties with his community.
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This section contains 1,053 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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