Human Values and Artistic Structure in Ali Khalifa’s Anthology the Most Beautiful Animal Tales: An Analytical Study of Selected Works

Abstract

This study examines human values and their artistic construction in Ali Khalifa's collection Ajmal Hikayat al-Hayawan (The Most Beautiful Animal Tales) through selected stories representing loyalty and friendship, courage combined with intelligence, patience and acceptance of others, and cooperation and unity. It adopts a descriptive-analytical approach, drawing on content analysis to classify values and on narratological tools to examine characters, plot, dialogue, time, and space. The analysis shows that anthropomorphism is the collection's principal strategy for making ethical meanings accessible to children. Values rarely appear in isolation: loyalty overlaps with friendship, courage with wisdom and quick thinking, and patience with endurance and social acceptance. The stories generally rely on linear plots, clear causality, moral reversal, and functional character types. Their artistic value is strongest when the lesson emerges from the action itself and weaker when explanation becomes overly direct.