Guide For Responding
Thematic Focus
I believe that my effort and passion will lead me to success, if I have both, it will come naturally.
Check Your Comprehension
They don’t have that much land.
Because he didn’t have enough money, he sold a colt and one half of their bees, hired out one of his sons as a farmhand and took his wages in advance, and borrowed the rest from a brother-in-law.
- Other peasants allow their animals to graze on his land without permission.
- When he tries to use the law against the trespassers, Pahom doesn’t win the cases and makes enemies of the magistrates.
- When he moves to a new town, Pahom has trouble with renting others’ land, which causes him to seek out his own land to purchase again.
The price is fixed, you get to buy as much land as you can go around on feet in a day with one thousand rubles.
He is controlled by his greed and so, he forces himself to cover a great amount of land, way more than his body can bear. When he returns to the starting point, Pahom’s body finally gives up and he drops down, passing away almost immediately.
Critical Thinking
He becomes greedy and obsessed with acquiring land.
The Bashkirs live peacefully with the land they have, just using what they need and they simply enjoy their lives as they are. Pahom, however, forgets his purpose, he wasn’t really looking for a better life in a healthy way anymore, he focused too much on being more powerful and wealthy than the rest.
Literary Focus
You shouldn’t fall into the temptation of the devil and become greedy. It’s okay to have desires but you mustn’t obsess over them and let that control you, and also, everything can change in a heartbeat, you may have all the wealth you ever dreamed of today but you may lose everything tomorrow.
It serves as a reminder of what most of us have been told but we tend to forget or not take it as seriously. Excessive desire can lead to great loss.
Build Grammar Skills
Pahom’s
Ruble’s
Bashkir’s
Chief’s
Pahom’s heart kindled with desire.
He gave away about one hundred rubles’ worth of silk robes and carpets.
It was the Bashkirs’ custom to sell land by the day.
The chief’s real identity is revealed at the end of the story.
Build Vocab
The landowner stormed into the house, holding a sheaf of bills in his hand.
His mind has gone sheaf; he hasn’t read a book in a month.
Although the area used to be a desert , irrigation made the land arable.
Pahom’s sister-in-law disparaged the country ways.
The wronged peasants complained to the landowner.
Pahom was piqued by his neighbor’s inconsiderate behavior.
…………………
Analysis
Mood: reflexive
Tone: greed
Theme: excessive desire can make a person lose all they have.
Character: Pahom is initially portrayed as a hardworking husband, a poor but happy peasant, and then becomes a greedy and prideful landowner.
Setting: the main setting is the russian countryside.
Conflicts: Internal: Pahom Vs.
himself because he couldn’t stop acquiring more and more land, which tired him out.
Man vs man: Pahom vs the trespassers.
Man vs supernatural: Pahom Vs. the devil.
Man vs society: the difference in power between social classes.
Climax: When Pahom is told he can buy as much land as he desires with a thousand rubles.
Resolution: Pahom dies from exhaustion and is buried.
New resolution: As Pahom arrives at the starting mark, he passes out from the exhaustion and is taken to a hospital. Three days go by and he is still recovering. Suddenly, he hears a continuous beeping sound near him, and then realizes it’s his holter monitor. He died!...
The chirping of the birds wake Pahom up, he desperately gets up from his bed, goes to the bathroom, checks himself in the mirror, and calms down knowing that it had all been a bad dream.
By Verónica Duque, Step 10
