Object of the Study

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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter consists of three parts, namely, object of the study, approach of the study, and method of the study. In object of the study, the writer explains what the novel is generally about. Approach of the study discusses the approach that is used to analyze this novel. This part includes description of the approach, reason of selecting the approach, and the application of the approach related to this study. The Method of the study explains the method that the writer applies in conducting this study.

A. Object of the Study

The novel that is analyzed in this study is Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The novel was published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group in 2006. This novel consists of 339 pages and is divided into 23 chapters. This novel is based on a true story of Greg Mortenson who struggles to promote peace through education by building some schools in Northern Pakistan. The novel talks about Mortenson’s failure to achieve the Peak of K2 to show his honor towards his sister Christa. This failure leads him to find new objective in his life that he successfully accomplishes. Greg Mortenson was born in Minnesota 1958, but he grows up on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. His father, Irvin Mortenson used to ask Greg to climb mountain since Greg was young. He is the only son in his family; he has three older sisters and one little sister. His little sister, Christa is profoundly different from the rest of the family and it makes Greg love her little sister much. She had an epileptic when she was three years old and she struggled hard to survive from her illness. Unfortunately, in her twenty-third birthday, she passed away. After her sister died, Greg, who at that time is a nurse, plans to have an expedition to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world. He wants to climb K2 in order to pay tributes to his sister memory. However, after more than 70 days of climbing, he fails reaching the summit of K2 and he gets lost and finally ends up in Korphe, a small and remote village. In Korphe, Greg is treated humbly by the head of the village, Haji Ali, and also the villagers until he gets well. Greg decides to do something to Korphe village to repay their kindness to him. He wants to build a school in Korphe because he feels sad seeing eighty-two children, seventy-eight boys and four girls who sit in the frosty ground, studying together. The children in Korphe are very enthusiastic to study even though there is no teacher and school. Appalled and moved by such a pitiful sight, Mortenson makes a promise to return to Korphe and to build a school after he gets back to his country, the USA. With such a new heartfelt objective in his life, Mortenson starts a fund rising in USA to accomplish what he has promised. He needs 12,000 to build a school. Greg realizes that he does not have such large money, he requests help from celebrities. He types as many as 580 letters to celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey. Sadly, his effort only gives him one check from Tom Brokaw, his senior in South Dakota University. Finally, he gets frustrated because he only gathers about US 3,000. To collect more money, he desperately sells whatever few possessions he has, including his car, his climbing gear, and cleans out his savings account. Seeing the situation, Greg’s mother, a principal of the West Side Elementary School, shows her willingness to help him. She tells her students about how Pakistan children cannot have good education as they have, and then the student have spontaneous idea to spend their pennies. In six weeks, the school children have surprisingly raised 62,345 pennies in order to make a contribution to Greg mission. Greg also gets other help from Dr. Jean Hoerni, a climber and a scientist who donates twelve thousand dollars in order to help Greg builds school in Korphe. He also establishes Central Asia Institute to continue Greg’s mission to build schools in other Northern Pakistan areas. Greg has a big motivation to realize his promise and his mission; he also changes his occupation to be a humanitarian. He keeps struggling in raising the money that he needs and he also makes improvements in doing his job as the director of Central Asia Institute.

B. Approach of the Study