جامعة الكوت - University of kut - بحوث

السنة	عنوان البحث	نشر البحث
2015	The Spiritual and Physical Needs in Leo Tolstoy’s "How Much Land does a Man Need?" and “God Sees the Truth, But Waits”	IISTE -RHSS
The similarities and differences between Leo Tolstoy’s “God Sees The Truth; But Waits” and “How much Land Does a Man Need” through the protagonists Spiritual and physical needs. Abstract The similarities and differences between Leo Tolstoy’s “God Sees The Truth; But Waits” and “How much Land Does a Man Need” through the protagonists Spiritual and physical needs. INTRODUCTION During his life, Leo Tolstoy wrote many pieces of literature. He began his literature career while he was in the army with childhood (1852). Followed by the sequels Boyhood (1854) and “Youth” (1857). But in 1857 he made his first trip abroad and abandoned literature to manage his estate. He then established a school and wrote and published a periodical describing his theory and education. This most striking idea being “Who should learn to write from whom, the peasants children from us or we from the peasants children?” In 1869 he turned his back on literature again and returned to pedagogical work. In 1873, he turned once again to literature producing “Anna Karenina”, but emotional distress and depression caused him to think that life was meaningless. “What meaning can a person’s life have which would not be annihilated by the awful inevitability of death?” bringing about his conversion to religion. He described the period of crises and conversion to religion in his confession (1882) but publicity was forbidden. He had considered confession his first step along a new road in his life. He then wrote a group of three books on religion “A study of Dogmatic theology, (A polemic against the teachings of the established church. “A Harmony and Translation of the four Gospels” and “What I believe. (A reasoned statement of his version of Christian teaching). Tolstoy devoted the rest of his life to his religious views expressing them is essays and works. Such as “One life” (1886-87) which is the philosophical heart of his teaching, mentioning the dualism of body, (the primal life of man) and spirit. ( the true life) followed by “ What then we should do?” (1886) “ the kingdom of God is within you” (1893) and “What is Art?” (1898). In the mid 1880’s, Turned back to literature with a series of stories written for the common people, especially peasants, published under the name “Stories for the people”. It is here we can see that he used a style of writing accessible to the common people which was much simplier than his usual complex style. He used narrative models and subjects from fairy tales and religious legends to express his concern of bringing the message of his religious teachings to the common peasants through his stories. The question of freedom and necessity is taught by Tolstoy, through these stories, freedom being, the freedom to act according to the needs of the spirit in other words the spiritual needs of a person, and necessity; controlling fears and desires, necessary for the body (animal life) and physical death. In “God sees the truth; But waits” the main character portrayed by Tolstoy is a young peasant named Ivan Dmitrich Aksinov who lives in a town of Vladimir. He is the one who expresses the spiritual needs of man through his hard time of twenty-six years in prison. He is a young, handsome man with a wife and small children. He doesn’t listen to his wife’s warning after she sees a bad dream and he ends up in prison after being wrongly accused of killing a fellow merchant and stealing his money. He dies at the end of the story as a prematurely aged man who has given up all hope even when the real murderer has confessed his sins. Whereas, the character used by Tolstoy to express a person’s physical and materialistic needs is the protagonist Pahom in “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” (a well-crafted adapted Short Story) who is also a poor peasant and has a family. He dreams of becoming a successful farmer of his own land as he is tired of having to pay fines when his cattle cross over into someone elses land. He eventually travels for days and goes a great distance to obtain a large area of land but his greed of becoming wealthy and owning too much land leads to his death. As both characters die; Aksinov peacefully but Pahom full of sorrow, an important question that may be asked and answered with the aid of these short stories could be, “What is necessary to a man for him to live and die in peace? The answer; physical, materialistic wealth or spiritual happiness. In the beginning of “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” we can see a wife content with her way of life. She is satisfied with what she has and is happy to live the life of a peasant. We can see this in sentences “I would not change my way of life” and “We may live roughly, but at least we are free from anxiety (p355) which she says to her elder sister stating she doesn’t have to worry about losing what she doesn’t have. But while her elder sister was boasting about town life, living comfortably with good clothes and good things to eat and drink. -