Matt smith
4/26/17
Comp
True Grit Analysis
The book, True grit by Charles Portis is a well-known book that many have read in their
time but, to really understand this piece of writing you have to understand the violence, the true
revenge Mattie Ross is trying to achieve and religion background Before anything the plot of the
story is something that needs to be thought over to understand what it’s all about.
True grit starts itself off with Mattie ross who is the POV in this reading. She is 14 years
old and has made her decision of abandoning her home to take care of her father’s business. The
reason of her going is because of her father being murdered by the handy man of her father’s
names Tom Chaney. As she is stabled in the town of Fort Smith, Arkansas, she has taken care of
the horses her father had purchased and had gotten the money back, she has found herself a place
of rest and is figuring out how to get this murder and get justice.
Moving forward she finds Rooster Cogburn, who is a marshal know to catch anyone or
anything, and tries to get him to help her out. Sooner or later she gets his help and with some
speed bumps in the road a Texas ranger names, Laboeuf who was already after Chaney but also
is somewhat competing with Mattie cause he is with the knowledge of Chaney being handed in
for a reward. Later in the book they have their ups and downs with the group and finally they
find Chaney and end up killing him and with no reward. Within the plot of the book repetitive
themes arises.
Violence comes in the book many times. The book itself is a very violent writing piece in
many forms such as gun fights, to horrific death penalties to even women abuse. But, back then
that was a very normal thing for these types of situations to happen. It was a normal thing to see
these criminal acts take place. From traveling on the road and getting ambushed by outlaw gangs
or rebel Indians to men getting drunk in the middle of the day and starting a fight with anyone
they see. Violence was basically flowing through everyone back in that time and in the book it
has an event that is a very good example of the topic at hand. On pages 107 to 111, when Mattie
is trying to keep up with Laboeuf and Rooster she ends up losing site of them and Laboeuf ends
up pinning her down and reputedly whacking her with a branch. Going off that it is really hard to
understand why these types of men would beat these women.
Within the theme of violence comes a small sub theme called gender. In the book Mattie
