Chapters 2-3 Summary
The second and third chapters of Linda Sue Park’s novel A Single Shard start out
with Tree-ear leaving the bridge (where he lives) to go and pay a visit to Min’s (the
expert potter) house. Upon arrival Tree-ear realizes that there is no one home and he
decided to take a look around and see if he can see any of Min’s work up close. Treeear had never been so close to Min’s house ever before but since he had watched the
potter work at a distance so many times before Tree-ear knew his way around Min’s
house. Tree-ear found a couple of freshly made and hardened pots on Min’s work shelf.
He decided to come close and examine them. The pots were in the process of drying,
shortly before being taken to the kiln and fired. The last of Min’s pots was an ordinary
large box with no special aspects to it. Tree-ear realized that it must have been the
material inside the pots that was of significance. When Tree-ear opened the large lid he
found several small cubic clay containers. The containers were perfectly sculpted with
perfectly parallel spaced lines of clay separating them from each other. Tree-ear was
amazed by this creation and admired them for a very long time. He picked up the large
clay container to examine it from all sides when Min walked into the room. Min
screamed “thief” and began to rush towards Tree-ear. Tree-ear was very startled by
Min’s screech which caused him to drop the container causing it to shatter in many
pieces all over the ground. Tree-ear convinced Min to allow him to be an
apprentice/helper for nine days in order to pay off the result of Min’s newly destroyed
pot. This was the only solution to the problem considering that Tree-ear has no money
or trained skill. However, Tree-ear’s many visits to Min to watch him work made him
possibly useful to the potter.
Tree-ear envisioned learning how to become a skillful potter during his stay with
Min (that after all is something that Tree-ear wants to accomplish in his life). But to
Tree-ears dismay all Min does is have him travel far into the woods to fetch wood to
heat the kiln. The first day Tree-ear’s axe hits him on the palm of his hand causing his
hand to split and a massive cut to develop. Tree-ear spends the last eight days chopping
wood in extreme pain due to the cut that begins to become infected. The chapters end
with Min’s wife, who never comes out of the house, telling Tree-ear to wait for Min so
that Min can talk to him – the nine days of work are over and Tree-ear wishes to
continue his work for Min.