Pride and Work Theme Analysis

In A Single Shard, pride motivates people to work hard while hard work bolsters pride in a virtuous cycle. Yet pride can also prevent people from asking for help, causing them unnecessary problems. Thus, pride can be either a good motivator or a stumbling block depending on context. The good and bad aspects of pride are clearest in the master potter Min. Due to Min’s pride in his art, he works very hard, throwing his pots over and over until they are perfect and making multiple copies of every ceramic so that at least one will come out well in the difficult-to-control firing process. Thus, Min produces the finest work in the potters’ village of Ch’ulp’o. Min’s pride and hard work contrast with the carelessness of another master potter, Kang, who figures out an impressive innovation in ceramics known as “inlay work” but still executes his pottery sloppily and makes many fewer copies of his ceramics than Min. When a royal emissary and ceramics expert, Emissary Kim, visits Ch’ulp’o with the intention of awarding royal commissions to the best potters, he gives Kang a limited commission but tells Min he’d rather give Min a commission—if Min can produce some of the new “inlay work” ceramics by the time Kim returns from a journey to another pottery region. Though Min creates some beautiful “inlay work” vases, the inconsistent firing process leads to an imperfect glazing—and Min, out of pride, smashes the vases and tells Kim he has nothing for him rather than show him imperfectly glazed work. Thus Min’s pride nearly prevents him from getting the royal commission he longs for. It is the intervention of Min’s employee, the young orphan Tree-ear, who volunteers to walk all the way to the capitol to bring new work of Min’s to Emissary Kim, that ultimately leads to Min getting a royal commission. In this way, Min’s story shows that pride is a double-edged sword. Although pride can motivate a person to hone their craft, leading to excellent work, unchecked pride can also lead to arrogant self-sabotage.