C. Ganga Lakshmi, R.Naganathan
Modern civilization and postmodern civilization have brought tremendous change in man-health and humanitarianism leading to degeneration. The changes are positive with respect to time factors whereas it is completely negative in case of health and humanitarianism.The story “A Grain as Big as a Hen’s Egg” by Leo Tolstoy was written in 1886. But even at that time, he started creating an awareness among the people regarding diminishing health issues. Such awareness is to be taken into consideration by the youngsters now-a-days. This short story which represents the values of human beings as well as the food culture available in them is a remarkable representation of ‘Humanitarianism vs. Materialism’ and ‘Civilization vs Hard Labour’. Schwartz says about values as, “A self-direction value was derived from organismic needs for mastery and from the interaction requirements of autonomy and independence”. (1)
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