Greg Mortenson's 'Three Cups Of Tea'

802 Words2 Pages

Three Cups of Tea is an inspiring story of Greg Mortenson who goes through a difficult journey to build schools for girls in Pakistan. Unfortunately, recent events have made people question if this motivating tale is even true. Though Mortenson has done some good for Pakistan, the fake image of a heroic figure he gave himself deceived millions of people, and it cannot be redeemed by any good he has done for the education in Pakistan.
Mortenson creates a perfect opening in Three Cups of Tea as he begins his journey at K2, where he tries climbing the second highest mountain in the world. He captures the audience's sympathy as he fails to climb to the top, making his way down in complete disgrace. As he comes back from the failure, he enters …show more content…

Jon Krakauer, author and mountaineer, researched Mortenson's trip and found that his true journey was different than written in his book. Krakauer detects the truth behind Mortenson's book when he writes in Three Cups of Deceit, “Mortenson has lied about the noble deeds he has done, the risks he has taken, the people he has met, the number of schools he has built” (Krakauer 7). Like Krakauer, the national television broadcast 60 Minutes further investigated Mortenson's time in Pakistan and organization and arrived at the same …show more content…

As he begins to lose hope, the captor, who names himself Khan, releases Mortenson simply so Mortenson can continue building schools and soon celebrates in honor of Mortenson. This scene in the book captures the way Mortenson changes people's hearts, but because of lack of definite reasoning behind the kidnapping, Krakaeur and 60 Minutes began to investigate if this part of the book was even true. 60 Minutes found the people in a photograph that Mortenson claimed to be of him and his captors. When finding them, 60 Minutes interrogated the “kidnappers” and was informed that the men were his protectors. One of the people in the photograph, Mashud, confirmes this as he says, “This is totally false, and he is lying. He was not kidnapped” (60 minutes, Mashud) Mortenson warps his story to make his books more interesting, and Mashud concluded so when he replied to 60 Minutes's question as to why Mortenson would lie about the kidnapping , “To sell his book.” (60 Minutes,

Open Document