Abstract
<jats:p>This article analyses the moral-ethical portrait of the adolescent protagonist in Odil Yoqubov’s novel “Er boshiga ish tushsa” (“It Is Hard to Be a Man”, 1962–1965; published 1966) and the artistic means employed in its construction. Through the destinies of sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds (Mashrab, Qo‘chqor, Akmal, Muyassar, Gulchehra and Larisa) coming of age in a mountain village during the Second World War, the study traces the moral maturation of a “generation that grew up before its time”. The article examines the interplay of psychological analysis, interior monologue, symbolic-landscape imagery and lyricism in revealing the protagonist, as well as the role of generational continuity, the peer group, the family, trials of labour and the confrontation with the adult world in the adolescent’s moral formation.</jats:p>