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Phaom
'It is perfectly true,' thought he. 'Busy as we are from childhood tilling mother
earth, we peasants have no time to let any nonsense settle in our heads. Our only
trouble is that we haven't land enough. If I had plenty of land, I shouldn't fear the
Devil himself!'
This is important because this is also foreshadowing. -
The devil
But the Devil had been sitting behind the oven, and had heard all that was said. 'All right,' thought the Devil. 'We will have a tussle. I'll give you land enough; and
by means of that land I will get you into my power.' -
Phaom's wife
"Of course our work is rough and coarse.
But, on the other hand, it is sure; and we need not bow to any one. But you, in your
towns, are surrounded by temptations; to-day all may be right, but to-morrow the
Evil One may tempt your husband with cards, wine, or women, and all will go to
ruin. Don't such things happen often enough?" This is important to the story because it is foreshadowing what is soon to come to the family. -
Landowner near Phaom
Close to the village there lived a lady, a small landowner, who had an estate of
about three hundred acres. She had always lived on good terms with the peasants,
until she engaged as her steward an old soldier, who took to burdening the people
with fines. However careful Pahóm tried to be, it happened again and again that
now a horse of his got among the lady's oats, now a cow strayed into her garden,
now his calves found their way into her meadows -- and he always had to pay a fine. -
Buying property
'Other people are buying,' said he, 'and we must also buy twenty acres or so. Life is
becoming impossible. That steward is simply crushing us with his fines.'
This is the first property Phaom buys. -
The start of the end of Phaom
'I cannot go on overlooking it, or they will destroy all I have. They must be taught a
lesson.'
Phaom starts getting aggrivated with people letting their animals on his property. (The start of him giving into the devil) -
He becomes unsatisfied with what he has
I would take
over their land myself, and make my estate a bit bigger. I could then live more at
ease. As it is, I am still too cramped to be comfortable. -
He sells his land for something better
I will sell
my land and my homestead here, and with the money I will start afresh over there
and get everything new. In this crowded place one is always having trouble. -
His family and him moved to a bigger estate
As soon as Pahóm and his family arrived at their new abode, he applied for
admission into the Commune of a large village -
He continues to be unhappy with what he has
At first, in the bustle of building and settling down, Pahóm was pleased with it all,
but when he got used to it he began to think that even here he had not enough
land. -
Phaom becomes sick of renting land from others.
'If it were my own land,' thought Pahóm, 'I should be independent, and there would
not be all this unpleasantness.'
Phaom has been renting land to sow his wheat in, and is becoming unhappy with having to rent land. He wants to buy land of his own. -
Phaom is visited again by a passing stranger, and is told of more land being sold.
The
dealer said that he was just returning from the land of the Bashkírs, far away,
where he had bought thirteen thousand acres of land Phaom is once again visited by a stranger and told about another amazing deal. This could be a sign that it is not just any dealer, it could be the devil himself. -
Phaom has a dream
"but the Devil himself with hoofs and horns
sitting there and chuckling, and before him lay a man barefoot, prostrate on the
ground, with only with only trousers and a shirt on. And Pahóm dreamt that he looked more
attentively to see what sort of a man it was that was lying there, and he saw that
the man was dead and that it was himself! He awoke horror-struck." This is foreshadowing. -
New Land
Phaom goes to buy new land, and is made a deal. He can have as much land as can walk around in a days time, starting at one point and stopping at one point. If he is not back in that spot by the end of the day, however, the deal is no longer. Phaom was greedy, and went as far as he could, and by the end of the day, is a far way from his destination.
'After having run all that way they will
call me a fool if I stop now,'
He runs to his desination, on the brink of death. -
Phaom is dead
"Pahóm's servant came running up and tried to raise him, but he saw that blood was
flogging from his mouth. Pahóm was dead!"
Phaom makes it to his desination just in time, then falls over, and dies.
This story is showing that it is human nature to want more and more. People are never content with their lives. Phaom pushed and pushed trying to get more land, and eventually ended up with nothing. (As foreshadowed by the beginning when his wife and sister were talking)