How Much Land Does a Man Need

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Creative Writing: Social Commentary Short Fiction”

In this activity, students will write a social commentary short story on an issue they believe contemporary society faces.

Although Tolstoy focuses his narrative on the development of a single protagonist, his short story is a general commentary on the relationship between greed and land ownership for humanity. In this activity, you will select an issue you believe is pervasive in contemporary society and create a short narrative commenting on its negative impact. Use the following questions to guide your drafting process:

• What is your “issue?” How do you feel about it?
• Who is your protagonist? How is this character “tempted?”
• Who is this antagonist? How does this character “tempt?”
• What is the setting of the story?
• What is the message you would like to share with your audience?

Share your story with the class and consider the different themes representative in your peers’ commentaries.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity invites students to consider the structure of social commentaries in the form of a creative writing assignment. Students should use the format of Tolstoy’s story (i.