SOCIAL PRESSURE AND THE TRAGEDY OF THE EVERYDAY INDIVIDUAL IN ABDULLA QAHHOR'S PROSE

Abstract

 Traditional literature associates tragedy with heroes, kings, or powerful historical figures. But modern authors demonstrate that ordinary people can be trapped into tragedy through poverty, fear, and social pressure. Uzbek writer Abdulla Qahhor was one of the writers who introduced this idea into national literature. He is writing about these everyday people, showing how their lives can turn tragic in response to social and moral pressure. Qahhor avoids telling stories about big events or heroic actions. His characters suffer not loud, but in quiet, internal struggle. Many times they collapse, not because they have no morals, but because society restricts them. (Rahmonjonovich, 2025) This essay considers moral conflict as tragedy in Qahhor's writing, and how social pressure generates emotional tragedy and how psychological realism is employed by him to depict moral conflict in “everyday life”. Psychological realism is a style of writing that reflects on a character's thoughts, feelings, fears, and moral doubts. (Khamitov & Otemuratovna, 2025, pp. 112-116)