Opposition «spiritual-material» in Oralkhan Bokeyev's story «Atau-kere»

The article investigates the issues of value characters’ opposition of the Oralkhan Bokeev's story «Atau-kere», the transformation of the «friend-or-foe» principle into «spiritual-material». The comparative analysis results of worldview and behavioural characteristics of the characters through incorporation into each semantic layer of the work are presented. The question of ethical evaluation of the novel's meaning division into two possible meanings, which are united by a common form but are not connected with each other, is raised. The authors consider the value orientation of the characters as the criterion for such division. The methodology of literary dichotomy in the paper is based on the criterion of comparison. It is reported that the object of dichotomy in a work of fiction is a word, an image, an idea. The authors conclude that the writer portrayed the split Kazakh society of the last decade of the twentieth century. The value opposition in this sense allows not only to see the reasons for the Kazakh society division of the late twentieth century, but also acts as a symbol of finding faith. The research novelty is seen in the fact that for the first time the opposition «spiritual-material» is studied in the context of Kazakh novels. Characters at the intuitive-subconscious and sensual-subconscious levels realise the truth about the necessity of moral transformation, overcoming the path from low to high, which is an ethical solution to the opposition in the story. The innovation of Oralkhan Bokeev, who transferred the principle of «friend-or-foe» to the ethical level, revealing the dichotomy of «spiritual-material» as a way of determining the qualitative characteristics of the characters, is proved.