The Effects of Patience “Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy. ” (Saadi, 13th century Iran. ) A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park, is about Tree-ear (M. C. ), an orphaned child who lives in the seaside village of Ch’ulp’o, a place where potters reside because of the bountiful amount of clay, with a homeless person named Crane-man. Tree-ear’s number one dream is to become a potter like Min, the best potter in all of their town. Once he is hired as an assistant for Min, he goes through duties as an apprentice as he works his way to being a potter.
His final task before he becomes a potter, although he doesn’t realize, is to deliver Min’s finest work to an emissary of the emperor. Tree-ear struggles with having patience all throughout the novel, finally ending up with his reward of becoming a potter himself. Even through constant frustration, Tree-ear learned that to accomplish his ambition of being potter that patience is key. In the beginning of Tree-ear’s journey, Tree-ear was thriving on the fact that he wanted to be a potter like Min, yet he soon understands that he must have patience.
He receives the task from Min to chop wood in the forest for the community kiln, and Tree-ear thinks that if he finishes fast enough, he would be able to go work on pottery with Min. Tree-ear soon realizes that to get to the point of helping Min, that he needs to be structured in his work. He starts to stack and cut the wood in an orderly fashion, which leads to him getting his job done correctly and with haste. Later on, Tree-ear acts stubbornly when Min declared to him that he is not close to being ready to making his own pottery, let alone turning a pottery wheel.
Tree-ear learns in the beginning that things don’t come as easy as he may think, and that hard work will pay off. He works by completing minor tasks in the beginning and starts to work his way up to bigger and more important jobs. This leads to him being pushed up the “work food chain. ” Tree-ear wants to make a pot all throughout the book, but in the introduction the reader sees Tree-ear dreaming about what he wants his pottery to look like. Linda Sue Park illustrates these facts where Tree-ear learns that to achieve his dreams that he needs to be patient and work hard at what he does best.
Continuously during the rising action of the story, Tree-ear’s understanding of having patience assisted him while working as an apprentice for Min. In the beginning of the rising action, Tree-ear must help prepare for an emissary to arrive in Ch’ulp’o to view pottery that will be made for the emperor himself. Tree-ear wishes to work and to help make pots for Min, but he is aware of the fact that if he works hard enough at what he is doing now, he will get what he wishes for. Later on, once Min is chosen for a commision for the emperor, Tree-ear volunteers to deliver a pot from Min to the emissary in the city of Songdo.
As Tree-ear is preparing to make the fatiguing journey, his old friend Crane-man says to him, “One hill, one valley, one day at a time. ” Tree-ear will take it one step at a time and not to worry about the end goal, and only to focus on that he needs to get to the next village, and he must have patience in doing so while not rushing ahead to make it to the next village before the sun goes down at the end of the day. He must use patience to his advantage to accomplish his trek. In the ending of Tree-ear’s journey the reader starts to learn how his constant utilization of patience.
In the start of the conclusion we learn that Crane-man dies in an accident, and Tree-ear has nowhere to stay. Min starts to show his soft side when him and his wife let Tree-ear live in their home. He tells Tree-ear that he needs to go cut wood more from the forest. He continues on like any other day when he realizes that Min had said why they needed the wood, which is a pottery wheel for Tree-ear. After a year long, rigorous hard work, tree ear earns what he has truly worked for: A spot sitting at a potter’s wheel making all of the pots he could dream of.
His constant hard work of traveling to Songdo rewards him with the resolution to his life dream. Throughout the novel, Tree-ear uses patience to assist him for his course, and also to keep him motivated at tough times. Whether he uses patience to calm his craving for being a potter, his major travel to Songdo, or the rewards that patience pays off in the end of his journey, Tree-ear comes to the conclusion that to achieve his dreams that he must be patient. In A Single Shard, Linda Sue Park implies a message that can lead to one major verdict: patience is key.
