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Sister visits
Beginning of the story, sister visits younger sister.
We find that the younger sister is more grateful and peasant-like than the older sister. The sisters chatter and dispute for a while over manners, life styles etc. -
Wealthy Lady's Estate
Lady's steward charges villigers with fines when animals get on estate property. Foreshadow, possibly lead peasants to get property -
Estate Up for sale!
Wealthy lady decides to sell property and gossip in town states that the Inn keeper is trying to bargain ith the owner to get land. Peasants are worried about this because they're afraid inn keeper will have heavier fines than that of the steward -
Buying Land
Pahom becomes envious of other landowners so he and his wife decide to buy up land, "20 or so acres" he states, after all is said and done Pahom walks away with 40 acres and half of it paid off while agreeing to pay the rest within 2 years To buy this land they barrow from a brother-in-law, have their son work as a laborer etc.. Land gets paid off within a year of them buying it, -
Trouble Arises!
As Pahom begins to buy more and more land, local peasants begin to sabatage his land in jealousy, scraping bark off of trees and cutting the, down, letting heards of animals pass upon Pahoms land. Pahom soon looses his temper and begins to fine them -
A Visit from a Traveler
One day a peasant calls on Pahom, Pahom gives the traveler some food and board for the night. As they talk to each other, the traveler tells Pahom of a place called Vogal where each man gets 25 acres of communal land for his own use. Pahom delighted by this packs up and visits this place. Happy with what he sees he sells his land and moves to Vogal -
New Home of Vogal
After Pahom sells his belongings and his cattle/land, he moves to Vogal in search for land. Upon arriving, he fills out the paperwork for becoming a member of the community. He and his sons receive 125 acres each at a different field. -
Barganing Again
Pahom plowing his land for about 3 years having to haggle with dealers of the land so e could plow again and again. After all this Pahom gets tired of having to do this and to cart his wheat 10 miles to the sellers and meets another traveler. After listiening to this traveler, Pahom is told te man bought up 13,000 acres for a mere 1000 roubles -
Act 5 - Moving again
Soon after talking to the man who bought 13,000, Pahom inquired on how to get to the Bashkirs. Upon arriving to the Bashkirs after traveling nearly 3,000 miles he finds them as the traveler had said, the Bashkirs were simple minded people and cared nothing of work. -
The Bashkirs
After arriving in the Bashkir camp to give them his gifts, Pahom finally greets the Cheif who decides to let Pahom have as much land as he wants. -
Plotting Land
SOon after finding he can have all the land he wants, Pahom also finds out that it is not simply 1000 roubles for land but it is 1000 roubles per day a buyer could walk and plot and return to his starting spot before the sun goes down. Surprised by this, Pahom agrees and decides to get an early start to the neyt day, so he goes to bed. -
Bad Dreams...
After deciding to go to sleep so he can have a quick start to the next day, Pahom has a dream where he hears a man laughing, as he looks out the tent it is the cheif, as he gets closer it is the first dealer laughing, then the man from Volga, but after getting closer, it turns out to be the Devil laughing upon the ground. Eventually Pahom sees a dead man on the ground. But as a closer look reveals, it is not just a dead man, but rather it is Pahom dead. Pahom awakes from the nightmare. -
Don't Get to Greedy!
As Pahom runs aloing the plot of land he begins to go into immense pain in the evening, he thinks that he has screwed up the plot but better head ack or else. So he runs with all his might towrads the hillock and the Bashkirs, throwing off his coat & boots only keeping the spade for support he gets closer to the hillock and his legs fall benieath him, his hand landing in the fox-fur cap of the Cheif. Pahom's servant turning him over only to find Pahom dead with blood coming from Pahom's mouth. -
Details - What are the Bashkirs?
The Bashkirs are a group created around medieval times in the Ural mountains of Russia and the borders of Asia. The Bashkirs primarily worship as part of the Sunni Muslim religion. -
Deeper Meaning...
Our author Leo Tolstoy is proclaimed as a free thinker and sometimes refered to as rebelous to government rule as said in Into the Wild by Jon Krakuer. Tolstoy's message beind this story could possibly be one of telling people not to press your luck or else you might lose everything. Tolstoy having lost all his money due to gambling would know what this is like and possibly be telling the reader what it can be like.