Contents
Tolstoy‘s book which is a compilation of many short stories and tales titled What Men Live By is one of his famous books. In this valuable work, Tolstoy told the reader about the struggle between morality, goodness, jealousy and the devil. He also gave the message that God would eventually provide divine justice on the basis of love. While reading these selected short stories, the reader will question themselves, redefine the concepts of wealth and poverty and discover the source of true happiness as the love of human and God within themselves.
In some of these short stories, the reader describes what happens to a greedy boss, and in others, the changes experienced by people who mistreat their guests. In this way, the author gives messages about the future of humanity. The author, who believes that people’s salvation lies in God’s love and goodness, leaves his mark on the future thanks to his book written in a literary language.
Subject of What Men Live By
Tolstoy aimed to contribute to society, people and to show them virtue and goodness in the works throughout his life. Moreover, he also used folk tales, legends and words from holy books in order to empower his expression. Briefly, it could be said that Tolstoy’s that book is a compilation of short stories consisting of approximately 90 pages. The main message of What Men Live By book is “the power of the God love.“
We cannot say that this novel, which consists of many stories, actually has a plot. However, the author describes truthfulness, mercy and goodness in all his novels. The author, who shows the disasters that happen to people who do evil and treat people badly, also gives messages to bad people in his novel.
Story of Shoemaker Semyon
The common messages of these short stories are to treat other people with kindness and love, to be patient. Tolstoy also shows reader to know how to forgive even if people have treated you badly in these short stories. Furthermore, Tolstoy repeatedly emphasizes the importance of forgiveness and his contribution to the solution of problems through the characters.The three important lessons in What Men Live By book of Tolstoy is very important for all people? In the first story, there is a poor but good-hearted shoemaker man living in the village named Semyon.
One day, he brings a poor man to his home who he met on his way home. Semyon’s wife Matryona mistreated and did not like this stranger man at first. Then, the story unfolds as Semyon speaks of God and his wife, Matryona, comes to her conscience and begins to treat this stranger well, feeding and dressing him. In this first story, the question “What is in man?” is searched for an answer to the question. After that, the question “What is not been given to humanity?” is asked, and finally the question “What do men live by?” is searched for an answer in the perspective of the relationship between this stranger and the family. This strange man whose name was later learned to be Michael, got along very well with the poor shoemaker Semyon.
Kindness is good for God
He was kind to Michael and helped him and then, became his assistant in the shoe repair business. Over time, Michael’s fame expanded well in the village and the surrounding area, then Semyon’s business went very well. At the end of this short story, it was understood that Michael was an angel who was expelled from heaven to learn a lesson from God.
According to Michael’s lesson, the answer to the first question was “There is love and kindness in man”. To the question of what has not been given to man afterward. Michael answered that “the knowledge of what he needs” has not been given to man. Finally, he answers the question of “what does one live with” with “love” and even “love of God”.
How Much Land Man Need?
In his later short stories, he usually talks about the painful events of the neighbours who were fighting, a bad. Then, tells an unloving butler/housekeeper who treats the villagers too much bad and the painful situation of the villagers who got involved in family quarrels. L. Tolstoy’s one of the most impressive and thought-provoking short stories after the story “What does humanity live with?” is definitely another short story named “How much land does a man need?“. Pahom, a small landowner peasant who is the hero of this story has become rich by gradually by expanding his lands thanks to his hard work. At the start of the story, he said to himself, “Our only problem is less land, If i had more land, I wouldn’t be afraid of anyone even the devil,” Devil heard these sentences and prepared a big trap for his greediness.
After that, one day a foreign visitor came to Pahom during the one day. The foreigner said to him that it is very cheap to rent in the new lands of Bashkortostan. Along with this he said to Pahom that the locals are very ignorant in that new lands. This new information made Pahom became ambitious and greedy about these new lands. Then, He decided to go there and buy large lands cheaply. When he went to Bashkortostan, The Bashkir chief tells him that all the land he can turn from sunrise to sunset will belong to him.
Pahom in What Men Live By!
The only condition for this to happen was if he managed to come back before sunset. HE was very happy about this news, but because of his greed, he started to turn very large areas from the sunrise and loses himself and went far enough to not return at sunset.
The foreign visitor which came to Pahom was actually the Devil with the aim of provoking him by deception. He walked and run for hours under the splits, hungry and thirsty to catch up at sunset. Just at sunset, Pahom came and caught the starting point but then blood comes out from his mouth and he dead on his new land which he dead for. Now a handful of land was good enough for him to be buried. In this short story, Tolstoy gave a message to the reader by telling that Pahom who lived very happily and peacefully with his little land, took a path that would eventually lead to his death due to his greed.
Ilyas and His Wife’s Lessons
In “Ilyas“, the last story of the book, Tolstoy tells how a rich peasant and his wife become impoverished as a result of their misfortunes and they end up in the position of serving a rich peasant. The interesting thing is that, one evening, İlyas and his wife told their boss’s guests that they are happier after they got poorer, along with the reasons. According to them, after they became poor, they realized that they had been very unhappy because they had not even had had time to chat with each other in their rich days. Moreover, in those rich days they could not find the opportunity to pray and worship God due to fact that they had devoted a lot of time to their daily world affairs, animals, property and possessions.
According to Ilyas and his wife, if people have a lot of wealth and money, this wealth might be the source of their unhappiness when they forget about the hereafter and human love by immersing themselves in worldly affairs. In this short story, Tolstoy redefines the concepts of wealth and poverty through the character of Ilyas and his wife and makes the reader think about them. You can also read synopsis of another Tolstoy book War and Peace. In order to buy that book please click here.
Final Message What Men Live By
Finally, it could be said that; while reading Tolstoy’s work, which is a compilation of different short stories about human self-questioning, society and human relations and social structure, the reader will question himself and will be able to see meaningful conclusions about life and rediscover himself.
The clearest and most basic message Tolstoy wants to give is; People can only achieve true happiness by doing good to other people and being compassionate. In this valuable work, the author also conveys to the subconscious that worldly pleasures and pleasures are temporary and that eternal happiness lies in the love of God.
