Much of the novel depicts Tree-ear’s ongoing struggle between giving way to fear and demonstrating courage. Sometimes the bravery required is physical, but often, Tree-ear needs to summon his willpower and moral rectitude. When Tree-ear sees a farmer walking ahead of him with a leaky rice bag, he faces an ethical dilemma: He is a hungry orphan who always fears starvation, so it might be prudent to simply take the lost rice without telling the farmer. However, in the end, Tree-ear’s courage asserts itself, and he alerts the farmer to the problem. Despite the farmer’s willingness to allow Tree-ear to take the spilled rice, Tree-ear is troubled by his own hesitation; he later reflects that he should have told the farmer sooner.

The boy is presented with a similar dilemma when he discovers Kang’s incised pottery design and realizes the advantage it could bring to his master. “Tree-ear had no doubt that Min could use the process to far better effect. But Min did not know about it. And therein lived the question-demon: If Tree-ear were to tell Min what he had seen, would that be stealing Kang’s idea?” (67). Once again, Tree-ear is tempted to act out of fear.