THE HUNTING MOTIF IN SAPARGHALI BEGALIN’S WORKS AND WORLD PROSE: A COMPARATIVE LITERARY ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article examines the hunting motif in Saparghali Begalin’s Satzhan, What Köksegen Witnessed, and The Young Marksman in comparison with selected prose by James Fenimore Cooper, Jack London, Mayne Reid, and Ernest Thompson Seton. The aim is to identify how encounters with nature shape practical knowledge, social recognition, and ethical choice. Qualitative close reading and comparative literary analysis are organized around environmental learning, relations with adult authority, the narrative role of landscape, and obligations toward humans and animals. The analysis shows that Begalin connects youthful competence with intergenerational teaching and responsibility to a pastoral community. London’s Keesh links ingenuity to fair distribution, while Seton’s Yan develops an ethic of restraint toward the pursued animal. Cooper and Reid provide adult frontier analogues rather than equivalent child protagonists. The comparison identifies shared narrative functions while retaining differences in age, genre, and cultural setting. It also qualifies the assumption that hunting narratives necessarily express environmental conservation. The findings can support teaching and further comparative research on children’s prose and human–animal relations; they do not constitute measured evidence of effects on young readers.