Description of social life in the story “The last victim of the war” by Utkir Hoshimov

Аннотация

Utkir Hoshimov is an Uzbek writer who became prominent with his novels in 19th century. This article discusses uzbek people`s behaviour and outlooks in the short story “The Last Victim of the War”, especially three main characters, namely Aunt Umri, Shoikrom and Xadicha. The story was carefully analysed and the analysis focuses on Utkir Hoshimov`s masterful way of expressing how the war was just an excuse for some people to show their true colours. The aim of the research is to explore the depiction of main characters` inner world that isexpected tocontribute to literature. Keywords. Shoikrom,war, UtkirHoshimov, strawberries, victim, Aunt Umri, Xadicha. Introduction. Like Kurt Vonnegut, the topic of war is an indispensable part of Utkir Hoshimov’s works, including “Between Two Doors”, “Lifetimes in the Dream” and “The Last Victim of the War”. He wrote about people`s struggles during hard times and created unique characters such as Kimsan, Robiya, Aunt Umri, Muzaffar and Shoikrom. Through these characters the writer shows how hard it was to live during the period of war. People get challenged in various ways, for example, morally and financially. Some of them are persistent enough to overcome the challenges, while others can not. In his story “The Last Victim of the War”, Hoshimov uses the fate of one family in order to represent devastating effects of World WarII. Main part. Utkir Hoshimov wrote about ten novels and several short stories. He primarily focuses not on soldiers, but on people thousands of miles away from the front while writing about the war. [4;256p ] Particularly, “The Last Victim of the War” tells about the suffering of ordinary uzbek people through the life of one family. Critic Kushjanov said, “Despite being a small genre, Utkir Hoshimov`s story “The Last Victim of the War” has great potential” [5;10p]. The story begins with the scene: “Shoikrom was sitting sadly on the edge of the sandals on the porch. It was already spring, and the days were hot, and he was upset that he had not taken off his sandals, but that no one thought about it” [1;34p]. With these two sentences the writer shows feelings of sadness and slight ignorance individuals were experiencing. As the story goes on, the writer uses phrases like “gray blanket stained with molasses”, “wooden spoon with a burnt handle” and “an empty ceramic plate” to show us the mood of Shoikrom, one of the main characters. The phrases also represent poverty and carelessnes. In “The Last Victim of the War” events of the last days of the war are described. Since the war began, it has affected uzbeks` mentality, leading to increased number of thieves. As a result, ordinary people become anxious, nervous and sometimes greedy. As Shoikrom is thinking, his mother, Aunt Umri, enters from the gate. After helping her daughter-in-law put her baby to sleep Aunt Umri sits near Shoikrom and talks about her other son. Shoikrom`s cow was stolen in the early spring and he remembers it with great regret that it is impossible for him to provide his brother , Shone`mat, with a bowl of milk. Shoikrom was not sent to the war because of the urgent need for qualified mechanics and he was happy when Shone`mat didn`t attend the war as well. However, he later found out that his brother had tuberculosis, an illness which was impossible to cure during those times. When sitting on the porch he suddenly remembers that it had been ten days since he visited his brother. Interestingly, they live in the sameyard divided by awall because there was a dispute between Aunt Umri and Xadicha ( Shoikrom`s wife). A year ago when Aunt Umri took just a handful of strawberries, Xadicha got so angry at her that they did not speak to each other Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages 191 ILMIYVAPROFESSIONALTA’LIMJARAYONIDAMULOQOT,FANVAMADANIYATLAR INTEGRATSIYASI for a year. After Aunt Umri leaves, Xadicha tells Shoikrom that she suspects strawberries are being stolen as part of the wall around their house is kind of demolished. Not having much to live on, every single fruit was considered valuable during those times and although Shoikrom is not convinced at first, later he comes to conclusion that thieves are stealing ripe fruits. Suddenly he gets enraged and wants to take revenge from the thieves for his stolen cow and strawberries. He takes a wire with which he used to light electric bulbs in weddings and places it in part of the yard where strawberries grow. In his head he repeatedly thinks “ I am going to kill whoever did this” and “ I can not even give my brother a bowl of milk because of dishonest people” and goes to sleep. After a while he is jolted awake by a horrifying sound and when he sees a figure of a person he suddenly realizes what he did was wrong. He lights up a match and sees his mother, laying dead on the ground, holding some strawberries in her hands. He instantly screams “Mom, please open your eyes!” [2;38p] and loses consciousness. When he wakes up, he sees his