A Single Shard Character Analysis

Anyone can have courage. It can let people do what others could not do. In the novel, A Single Shard, Tree-ear shows courage.

In the beginning, Tree-Ear, an orphan, does many things that would need courage. In the first chapter, Tree-Ear sees a man with a pack that, “Rice began to trickle out of a hole in the straw box. The trickle thickened and became a stream .”(Park 4) while Tree-Ear,”Walked until the man had reached the bend in the road, then ran to catch up to him. ‘Honorable sir,’ Tree-ear said, panting and bowing , ‘As I walked behind you, I noticed that you are marking your path with rice!’”(Park 4,5) This needed courage because Tree-Ear is a starving orphan and wanted to steal the rice. But instead of stealing the rice, Tree-Ear does

Tree-Ear does not know the way to Songdo, and it is very far away, with unknown dangers. Near the end of the story, in the eleventh chapter, Tree-Ear is attacked by, “The dreaded toduk-nom [bandits]”(Park 122) and they throw his vases over a cliff, and they are broken, but Tree-Ear decided to,”Journey on to Songdo and show the emissary the single shard [a shard he salvaged from the broken vases].”(Park 130) Tree-Ear is courageous, at this moment, because he decides to deliver one shard to the emissary, to try to get Min a commission, instead of two beautiful vases. By deciding to go on, Tree-Ear must face his failure, and possibly look like a fool, showing the emissary one shard. This shows that Tree-Ear was courageous in both the middle and end. In this story the author wanted the reader to realize that anyone can have courage. Because courage can come from anyone, everyone can show courage, one way or another. Tree-Ear is very courageous in A Single Shard by Linda Sue