I need helping writing an essay on Leo Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"

Tolstoy's short story "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is a cautionary tale focusing on greed and the cost of wasting time chasing more instead of enjoying what we have now.

There are several ways to address the work in an essay.  Most essays focusing on other written works are critical essays briefly summarizing the content and commenting on the piece.  To begin, you will need to determine a thesis.  The simplest thesis statement is a comment on the intention of the work.  The goal throughout the essay is to defend your position.

The opening of the work sets the scene for the entire story.  The Devil tempts Pakhom through the introduction of embellishments about available land.  The scene comments on unseen forces eager to woo unsuspecting or foolish people into believing wild tales of a better life somewhere else.

As the story progresses, Pakhom is overcome with envy as those around him are buying land.  He buys land and it seems as if he is to be content.  However, he becomes angry when his land is violated by his neighbors and files grievances against them.  Tolstoy may have been commenting on the lack of compassion by landowners.  Again, envy comes to play when a traveling peasant brings news of a wide open space where Pakhom could own much land.

Eventually, Pakhom made his way to an area controlled by the Bashkirs who promised him as much land as he could cover by walking in one day.  The deal sounded too good to be true, another commentary on foolish investments by Tolstoy.  Pakhom walks the land and realizes too late he will not return in time to seal the deal.  Rather than cut his losses, he exerts himself until he falls and dies at the finish line.  He is buried by his slave and Tolstoy closes out the story with the explanation that all the land Pakhom needed was six feet from head to toe.

Throughout the work, Tolstoy is giving clues and commentary on the reaction to envy, greed and failure.  As you go through the story, summarize a few paragraphs and comment on how Tolstoy used the plot to further his intention of commenting on greed.

I've included a rough sketch of how to set up your essay and how much of the page you should use to address each area.

Essay Plan
Page One:  1/3 Introduction (Include thesis statement); 1/3 Summarize Chapters 1 & 2; 1/3 Comment on how the plot moves (envy, greed, etc.)
Page Two: 2/3 Summarize Chapters 3 -5; 1/3 Comment on the plot
Page Three: 2/3 Summarize Chapters 6-8
1/3 Comment on the plot
Page Four: 1/3 Summarize Chapter 9; 1/3 Comment on plot; 1/3 Closing remarks (how relevant is the story? how did it make you feel? did you enjoy it?)