Comparing "The Bet" and "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"

The Bet and How Much Land Does a Man Need?

            There are many short stories that have a certain theme in them. Many can be about trials or temptations while others can be about joy and triumphs. Every short story varies in some way but many of them have the exact same theme in them. The theme in “The Bet” and “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” are very similar. The theme is greed. They are also different because of the amount of time it takes for one man to get what he wants versus the other man. There are also a few more things. Although these two stories both have a theme of greed in them, they are also very different overall.

            These stories are very similar because of how greedy both Pahom and the Banker are. Pahom, in “The Bet”, quotes, “If I had plenty of land, I shouldn’t fear the Devil himself!” (Pahom Page 945). The banker, in “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” quotes, “If I pay up, I am finished, I’ll be absolutely ruined!” (The banker page 964). They both want something so bad they are willing to do anything to get it. These stories are different though. In The Bet the man has to make the bet and then wait fifteen years to get what he wants. He has a flashback of the bet he made fifteen years later most likely regretting it. It is ironic how the banker was so greedy he was going to kill the lawyer but then finds the lawyer does not want the money since it means nothing to him. “In How Much Land Does a Man Need?” the man is greedy and becomes greedier as time goes on because he keeps receiving what he wants. It is ironic in this story how the man wants more and more land but in the end, as the title asks, the man only ended up needing six feet of land. This was enough for his burial.

            In conclusion, these stories are very similar and also different. They both show greed, but different forms of it. They both show men getting what they want, but in completely different ways and lengths of time. They take place around the...