Tolstoy as a Writer of Life Through his Short Story how much Land does a Man Need

Abstract

‘Tolstoy is not a work of art but a piece of life’. This research article is one which stands to prove the above statement. Tolstoy, after his service in Crimean War started writing fictions mainly dealing directly or indirectly with death. During his last three decades, Tolstoy interested in making people being moral. His moral and religious ideas were presented to the people through the ‘theme of death’. The reason for using this theme of death was that every immoral activity always led to death. There are also other reasons for using this theme. After his service in Crimean War, Tolstoy began to realize that human life was given no importance. In the name of war, human life was taken just like that. To make people realize this, he started writing short stories stressing the importance of life and for this reason Tolstoy was considered as the ‘embodiment of nature and pure vitality’. This research article is going to deal with the short story ‘How Much Land does a Man Need?’ that emphasizes the meaning and importance of life and through this I’m going to arrive at why he is considered as the ‘piece of life’.