After reading Leo Tolstoy's short story, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"it can be assumed that the main character is a reflection on man. His short story talks about how he got greedy for more and ended up dying from all of his greed. The moral of that story was to never make a deal with the devil and not to be so greedy. It is a reflection on man because the culture that we have today focuses on material items. The materialistic culture that we have has people buying a lot of things that they don't need. This culture that we live in causes people to think that they have to buy things to make them happy and can cause them to not appreciate what they already have. Having the culture that we have can bring out the worst in people because they will stop at nothing to get what they want and will get shallow about what they have.
Our materialistic culture is not on the right path and we should take a more 'simpler' path. However, getting that to happen is easier said than done because the USA already is materialistic and will be hard to change. Taking a more 'simpler' path will be better because it will allow people to appreciate what they have instead of what they want. Being materialistic can make people think that they need higher end merchandise to make them look good. Another way that a more 'simpler' path will be better is that people will not have as much debt and they will be happier.
When I was in Peru this summer, I noticed that while most of the people did not have much they were happy. This shows that having less can make people happy in a different way. Also, having less can help people learn to appreciate each other and possibly have better relationships. Even though people in third-world countries have less they usually are happier and able to make their own fun with less. In short, having less materialistic things is always better, but that does not always happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment