Ambiguity In Three Cups Of Tea By David Relin

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Three Cups of Ambiguity
In Three Cups of Tea, David Relin recounts Greg Mortenson’s story of building schools in impoverished villages across Pakistan. In a narrative style, Relin sparks emotion among the readers and inspires philanthropic action in support of Mortenson’s vision—providing education for underprivileged children. As a result, the Central Asia Institute that funds Mortenson’s school-building project, received a massive raise in donations. The book and charity’s successes are results of Relin’s clever use of ambiguity within his story-telling. The lack of clarity within the book allows readers to project themselves into the story and establish an intimate connection with subject. On the other hand, the overuse of ambiguity also …show more content…

Relin includes vague, but familiar personal struggles within the story, such as a bad break up and career struggle. The reader is able to empathize with Mortenson and again, create an emotional association with the protagonist. Relin uses this emotional association to establish trust in Mortenson and his future projects. Phoel argues that “it’s critical here not to spell out every detail of the future you imagine. What you want to do instead is invite the audience to envision for themselves what the future will look like” (Phoel). In last chapter, Stones into Schools, Relin employs this technique when he describes the future of Mortenson’s philanthropic efforts. Mortenson meets with Sadhar Khan to discuss the locations of new schools and he thinks about “[the] new languages to learn, new customs to blunder through . . . [and the] dangers he couldn’t yet imagine which loomed over his route like thunderheads” (Relin 331). Relin emphasizes that Mortenson will continue his philanthropic efforts, but he allows each individual reader to imagine a unique future that he, personally, desires Mortenson to create. For example, Relin mentions new languages, but he allows the reader to imagine what this language will be. This inspiring idea draws on the emotion of the readers and urges them to donate towards Mortenson’s charity in hopes that their envisioned future will become a

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