Myths, tales and legends have been referencing readers of S. Sanjeev's prose to the ancient times of the Great Steppe, despite the fact that the action of fiction take place in the twentieth century. The story of Satimzhan Sanbaev «White Aruana», which has become the hallmark of the Kazakh writer's prose, is devoted to the urgent topic «man and nature». The motives of freedom, longing for the lost great past, the indestructible call of the Motherland are central to the story. Formation of the national identity of the Kazakh people is mainly based on works imprinted in oral folklore. The problem of “man and nature” is solved by the author in terms of the increased responsibility of the inhabitants of the planet Earth for the world. The narrator reinforces mythology, psychological overtones, and tragedy against the background of an ordinary household plot. The life of the inhabitant of steppe has depicted in the fate of one family. This skill has become a peculiarity of the style of the Kazakh prose writer. The failures of the protagonist Myrzagali are perceived as a consequence of the gradual decline of the ancient and great culture of nomadism, the cosmos of Tenriism. The loneliness of the individual in nomadic culture is determined by nature, living conditions, infinity and boundless vastness of the steppe, in which the problem of «man and space» is relevant in the twenty-first century.