Parental Figures in A Single Shard

With this unit, we have been focusing on what it means to be a child without parents. While I was reading A Single Shard, I thought of another question. I began to think that the authors were questioning what exactly a parent was and what constituted being a parent. Is it biological, or is it something to do with the people who take care of you and look after your well being?

This thought came to me because I felt such a deep connection with Crane-Man. When I found out he had died, I literally had to take a five minute break from reading to control my tears. I wasn't sure why, but I was really upset by this and

I imagine Tree-Ear would have felt some of the same emotions. When I thought more, I realized that Crane-Man meant so much to me because he was like a father to Tree-Ear. He gave him advice, made him sandals, and sometimes cooked for him. This is when I started to realize that maybe Tree-Ear wasn't so parentless after all. Not only did he have Crane-Man but he also had Ajima and even Min served as a parent figure. Ajima and Min even take Tree-Ear in at the end, and give him a new name that is similar to their biological son's name. We know that Crane-Man was important to Tree-Ear because we are led to believe that Tree-Ear makes a very famous vase in the end, called "The Thousand Cranes" vase. We can also see the how important Tree-Ear is to Crane-Man because when his body is found, they discover he was clutching the celadon monkey that Tree-Ear had made him in his hand.

After I thought about the parental figures in A Single Shard, I started thinking about the other books we have read in this unit. All except Pippi Longstocking have had some sort of parental figure. Lyra has a whole slew of parental figures that look after her well-being, even though she finds out her biological parents are still alive, it is the people who care for and nurture her that seem to be the real parents. Saaski has Yanno, Anwara and Old Bess, and even though these are more like adoptive parents, they still take care of Saaski and protect her from the villagers.

This leads me to conclude that the authors of these books are perhaps saying something more about the role of a parent and what it means to be a parent and a family, especially since there is no "norm" for how a family is structured.

So I googled Thousand Cranes Vase and came up with a few pictures of it, and also some other celadon pottery I thought was cool.