A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THEMATIC AND ARTISTIC FEATURES IN ABDULLA KAHHOR'S A THOUSAND AND ONE SOULS AND O. HENRY'S THE LAST LEAF

708 A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THEMATIC AND ARTISTIC FEATURES IN ABDULLA KAHHOR’S A THOUSAND AND ONE SOULS AND O. HENRY’S THE LAST LEAF Maxramqulova Xonzoda Zafarjon qizi MA graduate, Uzbekistan State World Languages University, Tashkent, Uzbekistan E-mail: [email protected] DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17933465 Abstract.The article reveals the important features of stories written by the English writer Oliver Henry and the Uzbek writer Abdulla Kahhor, two brilliant writers of English and Uzbek literature, respectively, in the genre of stories. These works are always in style and have distinctive qualities. Using "The Last Leaf" by Oliver Henry and "A Thousand And One Souls" by Abdulla Kahhor as examples, the essay explores the narratives' key elements, themes, and material in addition to the unique characteristics of each work. Keywords: Story, genre, features, comparison, figure, portrait, landscape, literary details. Annotatsiya.Maqolada ingliz yozuvchisi Oliver Genri va o‘zbek adabiyotining ikki zabardast yozuvchisi Abdulla Qahhorning hikoya janrida yozgan hikoyalarining muhim xususiyatlari ochib berilgan. Bu asarlar har doim uslubda va o‘ziga xos fazilatlarga ega. Oliver Genrining “So‘nggi barg” va Abdulla Qahhorning “Ming bir jon” asarlaridan misol tariqasida foydalanilgan inshoda har bir asarning o‘ziga xos xususiyatlari bilan bir qatorda hikoyaning asosiy unsurlari, mavzulari va materiallari ham o‘rganiladi. Kalit so‘zlar: Hikoya, janr, xususiyatlar, qiyos, figura, portret, manzara, adabiy tafsilotlar. INTRODUCTION Literature is a tool that sheds light on each country's worldview and spiritual and cultural richness. Human experiences and thoughts are revealed via literature, which also adds color and touches the human heart. These authors include Oliver Henry, an English writer, and Abdulla Qahhor, an Uzbek writer. A pillar of Uzbek literature, Abdulla Qahhor's writings serve as a current compass and a school of talents. Don't take any of the author's work; it will reveal a new depth in all of humanity's delight and happiness. You cannot foresee how the job will conclude until you get to the conclusion; you will encounter an unanticipated reality. Despite the fact that the heroes in Abdulla Qahhor's writings are regular individuals, the author presents them to us by highlighting their hidden traits. He exhorts people to listen to their hearts and show empathy. On the other hand, American author O. Henry is renowned for his short stories. His tales romanticized everyday life, especially that of average New Yorkers. Unexpected endings were a common feature of his stories, a strategy that came to be associated with his name and cost him significant respect when it lost favor. MAIN PART 709 An American writer whose real name is William Sidney Porter, worked as an apothecary, salesman, book decorator, publisher and other professions, he practiced writing feuilletons (until 1896) and other literary genres, secretly published the stories he wrote while in prison (1897-1901) under the pseudonym O‘Henry. In 190410, 9 collections of short stories, "Burning Candle", "Western Heart", "Lovely Thief", and others, were published, and 7 more were published after his death. The novel "Kings and Cabbage" (1904) consists of adventure-humorous short stories. O‘Henry created a unique type of American storytelling. The strength of humor, the widespread use of methods such as irony, simile, parody, and most importantly, the author's sincere love for the ordinary worker - the "little man", the praise of nobility and honesty, and other O‘Henry stories brought worldwide fame, especially, "Four million" (1909). His works have been translated into Uzbek. G. Ghulam ("My Thieving Child"), A. Qahhor ("Pomegranate") and others enriched Uzbek storytelling with the advanced aspects of O‘Henry's work. Abdulla Kahhor, who made a great contribution to the development of Uzbek literature, was born on September 17, 1907 in the city of Kokand in the family of a blacksmith. Abdulla, who received secondary education in Kokand, came to Tashkent in 1925 and worked in the newspaper "Red Uzbekistan". He studied at the Faculty of Pedagogy of the Central Asian State Medical University (1930). The writer worked as a responsible secretary in the "Soviet Literature" magazine and as an editor in the State Publishing House of Uzbekistan (1954-1956). Abdulla Qahhor's work began in 1924. Initially, his stories, feuilletons, and messages were published in "Fist" magazine, "New Fergana" and "Red Uzbekiston" newspapers. The writer's first collection of stories entitled "The World Lives" was published in 1938. In the 1930s, the writer's collections of "Stories" (1935, 1938, 1939) reached readers. During this period, Abdulla Kahhor wrote the novel "Mirage" (1935) in addition to short stories. The writer's post-war novel "Lights of Koshchinar" (1951) is devoted to the topic of collectivization. He made a significant contribution to the development of Uzbek drama with his comedies "Hurting teeth" (1954), "Sound from the coffin" (1962), "My dear mothers" (1967). The writer's short stories "Love" (1968), "Tales from the Past" (1965) made an important contribution to the development of Uzbek prose. He received the State Prize named after Hamza for the story "Tales from the Past" among the autobiographical stories of writers such as Oybek ("Childhood") and N. Safarov ("What I saw and experienced"). Uzbek readers were able to read M. Gorky's "My Universities", I. V. Gogol's "The Auditor", L. N. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" (Books I-II) and a number of other works translated by Abdulla Kahhor and a number of other works in their native languages. 710 Now let's pay attention to the stories of writers. The story "The Last Leaf" by O. Henry, published in 1907 in the collection "The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories". "The Last Leaf" concerns Johnsy, a poor young woman who is seriously ill with pneumonia. She thinks that if the ivy on the wall outside the window loses all its leaves, she too will die. Her neighbor, artist Behrman, tricks her by painting a leaf on the wall. Johnsy recovers, but (in a typical O. Henry twist) Behrman dies of pneumonia while painting the leaf. While in the story "A Thousand And One Lives" written by Abdulla Kahhor in 1956, the characters of the work are as follows: Mirrahimov, a small man, wrapped in a very large blue robe, who says "this woman's soul is not one, but a thousand and one", Mastura Alieva, who has not left the ward for eight months, has been ill for ten years, Mastura's husband Akromjon, brother Haji. The work ends with the survival of Mastura, who everyone thought would die, and the death of brother Haji instead of her. Both works mentioned above are similar to each other in many ways. First, let's talk about the idea of the works. Paying attention to the story of "The Last Leaf", it is known from the name of the work that the last leaf means the last wish, the last hope. The hero of the work, Johnsy, imagines the last days of his life as a leaf and connects his end with that leaf, which was already a part of his life for him. The main idea of the work is to save human life with the power of art and love for life. After all, an ordinary artist who has considered himself unlucky for years saves a person's life with his last masterpiece, even though he himself leaves this bright world. As for the story "A Thousand And One Lives" created by Abdulla Qahhor, it shows the will of Mastura, a woman who was bedridden for ten years, to overcome the disease, and the tenacity and patience of her companion. It is through these two heroes that the writer wanted to reveal true love. At the same time, despite what people say, Mastura's love for life does not fade away in the writer's work, his cheerfulness and will revealed that a human child is capable of overcoming any pain and served as the main idea of this work. If we consider about characters, in both stories, the characters are revealed in a different interpretation. For example, the heroine of the story, Mastura, is a cheerful, cheerful and resilient woman despite being bedridden for ten years of her life. She makes fun of people without taking into account their condition and wins everyone's hearts, although she is a woman with a serious illness, and at the same time, thanks to this tenacity, she was able to overcome the disease. On the contrary, Joanna (Johnsy), the heroine of the play, after suffering from the so-called pneumonia, was very exhausted, depressed, and at the same time began to think about death. When he despairs of life and begins to think about his parrot, he calls each ivy leaf outside the 711 window the last days of his life, and when each leaf falls to the ground, he counts the days to death, which is in one way terrible, of course, while people around you are trying to live, you want to die. The hero of the play, Johnsy, was exhausted from mental illness and his body could not bear this pain, and he was drowned in the whirlwind of such thoughts, and because of this, he even forgot about his biggest dream. The similarity between the portraits of the heroes of the work is that the main characters of both stories - Joanna and Mastura - were seriously ill, and this illness exhausted them. Since Mastura spent ten years of her life in the grip of illness, everyone likened her to a "corpse" and once they even made a coffin for her as dead. The words about the possibility of death show that the lives of both characters in the play are on the line If we focus on other images of the works, we can see mutual similarity in them. Akromjon is Mastura's husband in " A Thousand And One Lives ", his love and loyalty to his wife does not leave him for a moment, he is the symbol of patience, loyalty and true love in the play, "The Last Leaf" da Sudy (Sue) is Johnsy's friend, she is willing to do anything for her friend, because of this, she tried to save him, she is depicted in the play with loyalty, friendly love and hopeful patience. Now we will pay attention to the characters in the works whose fate ended in a similar way. These are brother Haji - the oldest character in "A Thousand And One Lives" but who loses his temper when he goes to ask how he is doing in the play, and the old man Behrman in the story "The Last Leaf" tried to create a masterpiece all her life, but this symbol was given to her at the end of her life. He is widely covered in the work as a true devotee of art, and the fact that his masterpiece is given as a sign of the end of his life can be attributed to the fact that the works of most artists become famous after their death. Now, focusing on the description of nature in the stories, we can see that every writer adapts the nature to the mood of the hero. For instance, In "A Thousand And One Lives" the early spring air can be compared to the sick patients of Mother Nature, which has just woken up, that is, the winter that lasted for a long time and this painful spring means awakening and healing from it. I think there is a sign of recovery here after 10 years of illness. While in the work "The Last Leaf", the situation in the last days of autumn, especially the preparation for winter through the shedding of leaves of the trees, is illuminated as the last journey of a human child from old age to the end of his life. That is, in both cases, human life and its closeness with the environment is revealed. In both stories, human life and its connection with nature are revealed through the landscape. But the difference is that one of them 712 shows recovery - the awakening of nature, while the other shows the falling asleep of nature - death. From both stories, we can assume that human life and its connection with nature are revealed through the landscape. But the difference is that one of them shows recovery - the awakening of nature, while the other shows the falling asleep of nature - death. In one work, the coffin is given as a detail, while in the other, a leaf is given, and the details in both stories served as a symbol of "death", but the characters reacted to them differently. There are contradictions in both stories. For example, in the story "A Thousand Souls", the conflict between Mastura's character, that is, between him and his will, as well as with the surrounding people, is widely described. ‘An hour later, Mastura went into surgery. Doctors have been returning his opinion for five months saying that he can't get up from the operating table, but it didn't end - Mastura gave me a receipt saying that I won't be compensated if I die. When I tried to go in, the doctor didn't let me. I waited for him to see that I was gone, and if I could say something to encourage him, it would be a cure. When the time came, Mastura was taken out by the nurse and Akramjon on both sides. But as soon as he got out of the door, Mastura pushed them both ways; he walked steadily and opened the door of the operating room himself.’ [2, 13] The conflict between man and man is strongly reflected in the story "Last Leaf". ‘Leaves. Ivy leaves. When the last of them is spilled, I too will say goodbye to life. I have been noticing this for three days. Didn't the doctor tell you anything? - It's the first time I've heard such a thing! - replied Sue in a complaining tone, pretending not to notice her friend's words. "What do old ivy leaves have to do with your recovery?" After all, you like that ivy very much, earless girl! That's it, stop being stupid! After all, this morning the doctor said that you will recover soon ... out of ten ... now that I remember ... yes, nine out of ten. This is comparable to the danger that each of us can face while riding the streetcar in New York or passing by a new house under construction!’ [1,55] CONCLUSION In both stories, writers encourage people to love life, to live and not to lose hope despite difficulties. The patients in both plays survive with a greater love for life at the end of the play, but in both plays, the dead are other people, one is the old painter Behrman and brother Haji. While western youth life is reflected in "The Last Leaf", Eastern family relations and manners are reflected in " A Thousand And One Lives ". 713 REFERENCES: 1. Henry, O. THE VERY BEST SHORT STORIES OF O. HENRY (English Edition). Embassy Books, 2017. 2. Kahhor, A. A Thousand And One Lives. Asakhiy Publishing House. Tashkent, 2021. 3. Mamayusupova, S. (2021). Hikoyalaridagi afsona va milliy qadriyatlarning umumiyligi Shukur Xolmirzayev. Boshlang'ich ta'limda innovatsiyalar, 2(Архив№ 3). 4. Mamayusupova, S. (2019). ARTISTIC EXPRESSION OF THE CURSING GENRE IN SHUKUR KHOLMIRZAYEV’S STORIES. Theoretical & Applied Science, (12), 163-165. 5. Mamayusupova, S. (2021). The Role Of The Duo Genre In The Spiritual Education Of The Hcrocs Of Shukur Kholmirzacv's Storics. Boshlang'ich ta'limda innovatsiyalar, (Архив№ 1). 6. Mamayusupova, S. (2020). Genre features of applause." As an example of Shukur Kholmirzaev's stories. Архив Научных Публикаций JSPI.