speaking and have a higher achievement Rohrberger and Woods 170. In round characters, there is always the element of surprise. Greg Mortenson can be
classified into a round character because he has a higher achievement. He struggles hard to accomplish his mission to build schools in Northern Pakistan.
Afterward, he finally can build the schools in Northern Pakistan and until now his mission is working supported by CAI Central Asia Institute.
I also involve the theories of Characterizations. Based on the theory of characterizations, Greg Mortenson’s personality can be explained as follow.
1. Caring
The readers can get the clue of the character of the story in the novel through what the person says Murphy 164. The way of that characterization is
called speech. In the novel, Greg Mortenson has a little sister named Christa who is different from the other three older sisters. Greg says, “Christa remained small
and delicate-boned, and by the time she started school, it was apparent she differed profoundly from the rest of her family” 37. Greg Mortenson gives more
attention to Christa and he becomes a looming presence over anyone who would consider teasing his little sister.
Greg Mortenson’s care is showed when he is passionate for losing Christa. For that reason, Greg Mortenson returns home for a year to spend the time with
his youngest sister. Greg Mortenson helps Christa to find a job in a bags factory, he also helps her to ride St. Paul city bus until she is able to learn the route herself.
When Christa starts dating, Greg Mortenson asks a nurse to talk to Christa about sex education. Greg says, “In 1986 I began a graduate program in
neurophysiology at Indiana University, thinking idealistically that with some inspired work he might be able to find a cure for his sister” 43.
In April 1981, in Greg Mortenson’s second year study in Vermillion, Dempsey Greg’s father was diagnosed with cancer 42. Greg tries hard to
personage his time, he endures to drive for six hours from Vermillion to Minnesota on the weekend to spend his time with his father. Greg learns of his
father illness that his father’s cancer already spread to the lymph nodes and liver. Greg knows that he will lose his father quickly. Therefore, he asks the doctor to
discontinue the radiation, because he wants to have a chance to enjoy his little time with his father. Moreover, he decides to drop out of school and to take care of
his father full time. We know that Greg Mortenson is a good son; he takes a great care of his
father until his father passes away. The last time Greg Mortenson visits his father, Greg Mortenson says,
I had a test in the next morning and didn’t want to arrive home in the middle of the night, but I couldn’t leave him. He wasn’t very comfortable
with affection, but he kept his hand on my shoulders the whole time I was there. Finally, I got up to leave and he said, ‘It’s all done. It’s all ofay.
Everything’s taken care of’ 42.
From the family background, Greg Mortenson cares of everyone. This is proved when he comes to Korphe village. Greg Mortenson concerns about this isolated
village, the place where he gets hospitality from the villagers. “Korphe village was perched on a shelf eight hundred feet above the Braldu river, which clung in
unlikely fashion to the side of the canyon wall like a rock climber’s sleeping platform bolted into the side of a sheer cliff” 24. He says,
The people of Korphe had a hard life, but they also lived with a rare kind of purity. I knew the bridge would help them get to a hospital in hours
instead of days, and would make it easier to sell their crops. But I couldn’t help worrying about what the outside world, coming in over the bridge,
would do to Korphe 112.
Greg Mortenson’s story above shows small and isolated village Korphe is. Greg knows a bridge will be very useful for Korphe villagers to make them easier in
having relation or communication with the people outside the village. Greg Mortenson also shows his care by distributing his possessions to
Korphe’s villagers who are lack of tools in order to hold up their daily life. Greg Mortenson began distributing all he had. Small useful items like
Nalgene bottles and flashlights were precious to the Balti, who trekked long distance to graze their animals in summer, and he handed them out to
the members of Haji Ali’s extended family. To Sakina, he gave his camping stove, capable of burning the kerosene found in Balti village 30.
Furthermore, since Greg Mortenson is a nurse, he carries his medical kit into Korphe. He spends longer hours to climb the steep paths among Korphe’s houses.
He cares of Korphe’s villagers by doing something he can to beat back the avalanche of need. Using tubes of antibiotic ointment Greg Mortenson treats open
sores and lances and drains infected wounds. He also sets broken bones and does what he could with painkillers and antibiotics 31.
When Haji Ali takes Greg Mortenson to come along and to visit Korphe’s school, Greg Mortenson is appalled to see eighty two children are studying on the
frosty ground without any teacher. Greg Mortenson says, “I felt like my heart was being torn out. There was fierceness in their desire to learn, despite how mightily
everything was stacked against them, that reminded me of Christa. I knew I had to do something” 32. In addition, Greg Mortenson says to Haji Ali,
I am going to build you a school, he said, not yet realizing that with those words, the path of his life had just detoured down another trail, a route far
more serpentine and ardous than the wrong turns he’d taken since treating from K2. I will build a school, Mortenson said, I promise 33.
The evidences above show that Greg Mortenson is a caring person. He cares to his family and Korphe villagers. Greg Mortenson does not only think about himself
but also thinks about others. He always gives his attention to people who need his care and affection.
2. Friendly
