How Much Land Does A Man Need? begins with a man of relative innocence, a smalltime farmer who's wife brags about how happy they are even without money. "We may live roughly, but at least we are free of anxiety," is what she tells her rich sister when the two are discussing ways of living. The wife's boastful bragging attracts the attention of the devil. He decides he will take it upon himself to corrupt the, who's name was Pahom, and prove his wife wrong.

Pahom's life is becoming more and more hard because he does not own his own land. He and his wife scrape together enough money to buy a little land. This land does very well and Pahom begins to forget where he came from. He begins to treat people that are in the position he used to be in badly, in a way he did not like to be treated back then. He is not well liked in his community anymore.

Pahom then meets a peasant that tells him where he c

He hides the body with out a word to the reader about his remorse. He walls the corpse up in his cellar and waits. Four days later, the police come. The search the whole house and find nothing. They search the cellar with the narrator standing right there with them until they are satisfied and begin to leave. The man is completely calm while they are searching and now that they have finished and it seems that he is going to get away with murder, he is filled with feelings of excitement and confusion. He begins to make bad jokes about how well the walls of the house are made. He even begins to knock on the wall his wife's lifeless body is concealed behind. When he knocks he hears an unearthly call that he thinks is his wife screaming from beyond the gave. He grabs his head screaming in fits of insanity as the wall tumbles down and his wife falls out for all the police to see. The scream was from the black cat. The narrator had walled it up with the corpse by accident.

He is shaken by the dream but he continues with his plan the next day. He plots off a lot of land but unfortunately his greed gets the best of him and he plots of land too far away to get back to the start in time for sunset. He dies trying to run back to the starting point and get his land.

The effect of the third party and progression of the character is similar to those of How Much Land Does A Man Need. The innocent man is the narrator at the beginning of the story. The third party influence is when the narrator begins to drink heavily. The corrupt man is when the narrator begins to abuse the creatures he once loved and murdering his wife. Death is represented when the narrator is driven over the edge and gives himself away to the police in an insane fit.

The result of the third party influence in this story is the main character forgets to enjoy life in his pursuit of making it better. He does not appreciate what he has at the time, only what he wants to have tomorrow. It is a progression of innocent man, to third party influence, to corrupt man, to unhappiness, to death.

This does not last. The n

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Approximate Word count = 1422
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)