Adriana Alexander
5/6/08 Period 3
World Literature

How Much Land Does a Man Need?


The conclusion of this story was very clever and true. It was about a man named Pahom who wanted to be so greedy and try to own all the land he could possibly get. He thought that, with that much of land, he would fear no one. So the devil thought he could get him to make an evil deal with him. He told him that he could have all the land he could cover in a few days. He went in a square determined to claim all of the land he was so eager to receive. When he got back to the devil, he died. Then, the devil stated that all he really needed was six feet of land to be buried in.
I do believe that he met a fitting end. He got exactly what he deserved because usually that’s the ending result of people who thirst for more and try to accomplish nothing to get it. The moral of this story was to teach people not to be so greedy and want so much for so little. It also teaches that if you began to feel the urge for more things, you will become a completely different person and start to do things you never thought you would do. Adrenaline would start to rush through your veins and you would do whatever it takes to get what you long for. That’s the result of being greedy and trying to get things in such an easy way. A good saying for this story would be “Cheaters never prosper”.