Comparing A Single Shard And Homeless Bird By Gloria Whelan

Has anyone ever doubted you, or put you down for your past. Well, Koly and Tree-ear were. A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park and Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan are two great historical fiction novels that depict the life in the shoes of the main characters. The Main character in A Single Shard is Tree-ear, a young orphan that lives under a bridge, wishing for nothing but to become a Master potter like Min. Tree-ear goes through life, a innocent boy, while the world throws everything it has at him. On the other hand, the main character of Homeless Bird is Koly, who is a young girl that is married off to a sickly young boy with no hopes of a future. After his death she carries a widow's burden and has no place to go. Even through the intense

challenges that the characters go through., A Single Shard and Homeless Bird both demonstrate their respect and love of culture.
The first reason that shows that both books show culture is that there are obvious examples of keeping tradition.In A Single Shard, keeping with tradition is shown when Tree-ear asks For Min to teach him how to make a pot. Tree ear has always wished for this and his life goal is to be like Min. Min is Tree-ear’s Role Model. But, Min, who is the master potter, reacts by saying,Know this, orphaned one,’ Min said slowly, ‘if you ever learn to make a pot, it will not be from me.’ Tree ear could not stop himself, ‘ Why,’ he cried out, ‘Why will you not teach me.’ ‘Why,’ Min repeated.’ I will tell you why.’ The potter’s voice was low, but shook with the effort of control. ‘ The potter’s trade goes from Father to son. I had a son once. I would have taught him, but you, you are not my son.” (Sue Park 95). This text shows me that it is a strong tradition to keep the potters trade in the son, and the fact that Tree-ear tried to break it caused Mina lot of grief and anger. In Homeless bird , keeping with tradition is shown when Koly doesn’t take her pension back even though Sass stole it, because it is tradition to pay a dowry. “You wouldn’t take the pension back would you. If you do I will have no husband.’I was very angry but not so angry that I would ruin Chandra’s happiness.” (Whelan 71). This quote shows me that when stolen from and lied too, keeping with the tradition of the wife paying a dowry is still much more important and obvious.To conclude, both books show that keeping tradition is extremely important when displaying your culture.
Another reason for why A Single Shard and Homeless Bird both demonstrate strong culture is the fact that you are treated differently because of who you are or was.In A Single Shard, being treated differently is shown when Tree-ear is being robbed.

The robbers see who he is and call him out for it. Stop your struggle worthless one,” he said.”We mean only to rob you but it would not be past us to harm you if you prove too much trouble.”(Sue Park 125). This piece if text evidence shows me that when people see weaker or poorer people they prey on the and lose their humanity. They saw that tree-ear was hungry and weak and judged him for it, so they assumed what he would be like. In Homeless Bird, being treated differently is shown when Tanu is jealous of Kloy for finding someone who will marry a widow. ”You are lucky”, she said and her voice was bitter,” Where will I find a man who will marry a widow.”This text illustrates that maybe it is not normal for people to marry widows because it is either taboo or bad luck too, or people just judge widow harshly because they are not often found.This is not good because a lot of hatred and violence would be avoided if people didn’t judge others.Finally, this paragraph shows that nothing good comes from judging others for their

culture.
One more reason for why A Single Shard and Homeless Bird both demonstrate strong culture is how there are certain practices and values that are respected and disrespected in their culture.

A Single Shard, evidently shows that there are certain practices and values that are respected more than others. An example is Pottery and its importance is shown when the book states, “Pottery is one of the most respected and admired arts in the country.” This implies that pottery is an import practice that requires patience and skill. Also, the fact that they called it an art shows a lot because you could only respect art. Homeless bird clearly shows that there are certain practices and values that exist band should be noticed. For example, hard work is a value that is extremely respected. Koly shows hard work when the book states,“I made the rice, drained the clothes, I couldn’t talk back or be silent. Finally my hard work pleased her..”(Whelan 62). This piece of evidence proves my reason because this shows that even when you may not like someone, you have to respect their perseverance and hard work like Sass did. To finish, these books clearly show examples of practices and cultures that involve their beliefs and

traditions.
In conclusion, Tree-ear and Koly demonstrate examples of culture by keping with culture, not judging people for their culture, and by showing certain practices and values that fall into their culture. To finish, the lesson that we all can take from these books and this essay is that all culture are different which means that they have very different aspects and views of it that we call different. So next time you come across a different culture, respect it and welcome it as you would like your own culture to be welcomed.