A Comparative Study Of Existential Solitude And Human Fortitude In Erkin A’zam’s Tanho Qayiq And Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man And The Sea

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative analysis of human fortitude, existential solitude, and moral integrity in Erkin A’zam’s novella Tanho Qayiq (The Lonely Boat) and Ernest Hemingway’s Pulitzer-winning novella The Old Man and the Sea. Grounded in comparative literary methodology, hermeneutic close reading, and psychological framing, this study explores how both authors deploy the vessel ("boat") as a central psychological and allegorical motif. The principal results demonstrate that while Hemingway utilizes the Iceberg Theory—restrained dialogue and physical struggle on the open sea—to illustrate physical stoicism against raw natural forces, A’zam employs socio-psychological realism, character speech registers, and ironical subtext to depict moral endurance within domestic and societal environments. Despite differing narrative modes and cultural settings, both works converge on a fundamental thesis: human dignity is preserved not through material success or external validation, but through an unyielding internal conscience. The study concludes that pairing Central Asian psychological prose with Western modernist fiction enriches the global comparative discourse on narrative symbolism and existential ethics.

Keywords

Erkin A’zam; Ernest Hemingway; Tanho Qayiq; The Old Man and the Sea; existential solitude; Iceberg Theory

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