True Grit Themes

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The True Grit film was directed by Henry Hathaway in 1969 and the novel was written in 1968 by Charles Portis. Mattie Ross is the main character featured in the novel, but she does not have the principal role in the film due to the lead of Rooster Cogburn starring John Wayne. In the novel, Mattie is portrayed as a character who is advanced for her age, brave and didn’t let anything stop her, but in the movie she can seem childish at times. Mattie is a fourteen-year-old girl who goes on an adventure to seek revenge on the man who killed her father. Two other characters named Rooster Cogburn and La Boeuf travel with Mattie on this adventure. The man who murdered her father is named Tom Chaney. One day Tom came riding a horse that had a dirty …show more content…
Along the way, Mattie sometimes has acts of being childish. She is almost demanding it in a way as if she does not have it, it will be the end of the world. “I want Papa’s gun. I want the other gold piece, too. You sure you don’t want the snake? No. But I want the gold piece. Forget it. But it’s mine and I want it.”( True Grit, Henry Hathaway). At this time, Mattie is in danger and needs to continue on so she can be safe but her father's objects are more important to her at this moment rather than her life. Viewers might find Mattie's actions to be childish because she is just worrying about stuff that can be replaced like money compared to her arm or even her own life. Another example on how the book is different from the movie is how in the book, Mattie gets bit by a rattlesnake and then has to get her arm amputated. In the movie she does get bit but doesn't have to get her arm cut off. In a way it is almost a life lesson because it shows how your actions can lead to further consequences. Although, they don't show Mattie with her arm amputated it seems Mattie gets away for free and gets to live a happy carefree …show more content…
Although she has known Chaney for a while, Mattie has no pity what's so ever and wants him to get what he deserves. Mattie is only a fourteen-year-old girl who has this heavy weight on her shoulders to seek revenge. Readers might think she is too young but Mattie shows her true colors and that nothing will stop her. “People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen everyday.”(Portis 11). Mattie is very advanced for her age because most fourteen-year-olds would not want to go find the man who killed her father to try to bring him home where the sheriff will get involved in his actions or even kill him on their own. Mattie also thinks advanced for her age throughout the book like coming up with the ideas on the long journey with two grown men and tells them what to do. While reading this novel a reader can tell how mattie is based off what she says and how advanced she is for her age. “I am too now a member of the Southern church. I say nothing against the Chumberlans. They broke with the Presbyterian Church because they did not believe a preacher needed a lot of formal education.”(Portis 114). Mattie took it upon herself to become a member of a church and state what she thinks about their logic and the education. Most
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