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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. What advantage does Pahom see to owning land in the new settlement?

2. In Chapter V, whom does Pahom leave in charge of his homestead while he is gone?

3. How much more land does Pahom have for his use when he and his family are first living at the new settlement?

4. What will Pahom do with "pasturage"?

5. What does Pahom tell the Bashkirs is wrong with the land where he comes from?

Short Essay Questions

1. What deal does the traveling dealer tell Pahom he was able to get on land from the Bashkir?

2. When Pahom and his family arrive in the new settlement beyond the Volga, what does he do first, and what is the result?

3. When Pahom asks the Bashkirs for some land, what is their response?

4. After the chief offers Pahom land, how does Pahom respond, and why?

5. What procedure do the Bashkirs outline for marking the land that Pahom claims?

6. What is the response of the Bashkirs to Pahom's arrival?

7. What is the price of the land the Bashkirs offer Pahom, and how much land do they offer?

8. What deal does Pahom strike to buy some land of his own in the settlement beyond the Volga?

9. How does the text contrast the life of the Bashkirs with the life of Russian peasants, and what is ironic in this description?

10. What causes Pahom to become dissatisfied with his situation in the new settlement?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

At the beginning of Chapter III, Tolstoy tells the reader that "Pahom was well contented, and everything would have been right if the neighboring peasants would only not have trespassed on his corn-fields and meadows." What evidence argues that this is not true? Why would Tolstoy have had his narrator say this if it is unlikely to be true? How does this affect the reader's understanding of the narrator's tone, and why does it matter?

Essay Topic 2

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.

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter I, when the sisters are talking, Pahom's wife tells her sister, "We may live roughly, but at least we are free from anxiety. You live in better style than we do, but though you often earn more than you need, you are very likely to lose all you have. You know the proverb, 'Loss and gain are brothers twain.'" Write an essay that explains the meaning of this quote and why, in the context of this story, it is heavily ironic.

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