True Grit (Charles Portis)

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1. What is the genre?

Global — Western > Vengeance

Secondary — Status > Admiration

2. What are the conventions and obligatory scenes for the genre?

Conventions

The protagonist is up against life and death stakes. Mattie pursues Tom Chaney, the killer of her father, a man already wanted for murder in another state. Before the hunt even begins, Mattie witnesses a triple hanging in public.

The hash, hostile wide-open landscape is a ‘character”. This is played out through winter conditions that imperil Mattie’s quest through illness, lack of basic physical needs such as shelter and nutritional food, arduous horse riding, where opportunities to lose life outnumber those that preserve it, such as a landscape that threatens injury, e.g. steep cliffs, snake pits and delivers constant discomfort. When Mattie said she’d been riding and sleeping out on a coon hunt, Rooster replied, ‘This aint no coon hunt. It don’t come in 40 miles of a coon hunt.’

Hero, victim, Villain roles clearly defined through the story. Mattie starts out as a 14-year-old victim: bereaved and, if the townsfolk of Fort Smith could get their way, psychologically restraining her and depriving her of practical support to pursue the villain Chaney who killed and robbed her father. But the wily Mattie overcomes the obstacles put in her way and becomes the hero of the story, sacrificing her comfort, well-being and potentially her life, to pursue justice. She invokes change in Rooster and La Boef who attain hero status in the end to help save her.

Hero’s object of desire is to stop the villain and save the victim. Although saving other victims is never explicitly stated by her, Mattie acts to provide safety to other potential victims who may be killed by Chaney. Her strong desire to do so maybe inferred by the lengths she went to secure support, including selecting a Marshall different to the one the sheriff recommended. And if she hadn’t paid Rooster Cogburn to help her, she had no certainty her need would be met because the rest of town’s response to her father’s murder was, at best, apathetic.

Hero operates outside the law (selectively or as a matter of course). In Mattie’s ideal world, she wants to see Chaney tried and hanged but is prepared to kill him, or have a Marshall kill him, if he doesn’t surrender. This would be to take the law into her own hands and in her choice of Rooster Cogburn, she knows he would be willing to do that. Later, under duress, she forges the signature of the Bank President on brand new bank notes stolen by Lucky Ned’s gang.

The power divide between the hero and villain is very large with the villain being far more powerful than the hero. Mattie is more powerful than her widowed mother. She attends to all the financial affairs of her father and asserts herself and her needs despite her mother’s call to return home through lawyer Daggett, whom she also enlists as a supporter. Despite being physically weak compared to older males, her logic, wit, pluck and literacy make her relatively powerful, despite her age. However, Chaney is even more powerful because until Mattie intervenes, he has twice escaped the law for capital crimes. Chaney also has the support of outlaw Lucky Ned and his gang who act as allies in his escape.

Speech in praise of the villain. When Mattie tries to understand how Chaney could have escaped the law and been able to murder again, La Boef describes him as ‘crafty’, a person able to fool and manipulate others to his own ends.

Obligatory Scenes

Inciting attack by the villain: (off page) Mattie’s father, Frank Ross is killed by Tom Chaney in an unprovoked attack leading to Chaney robbing Frank of his horse and valuables.

Hero sidesteps responsibility to take action: While Mattie is expected to help her mother prepare for the funeral, she travels to Fort Smith to attend to her father’s financial affairs. Although she arranges a coffin, she sends Yarnell home with her father’s body while she remains to negotiate his financial affairs and plan for Chaney’s capture or killing.

Forced to leave the ordinary world, the hero lashes out. When Rooster Cogburn says he doesn’t want Mattie along on the hunt for Chaney, she is driven to insult him. When he moves to give her a hiding, she holds his business papers (something Rooster finds difficult to maintain) over the fire. Mattie then wins over the literacy challenged Rooster by helping him correct those papers. Later, in defiance of Rooster and La Boef’s attempt to abandon her, she takes her horse across the river and joins them.

Discovering and understanding the MacGuffin. Mattie discovers from La Boef, that Chaney is wanted for the murder of a Texas senator and there is a significant price on Chaney’s head. She knows Chaney will need to run again to maintain freedom and seek sanctuary from others (Lucky Ned and gang) to benefit from the proceeds of his crime.

Hero’s initial strategy to outmaneuver the villain fails. When Rooster shoots and kills Quincy, the man in possession of one of the gold coins stolen by Chaney, Mattie is unable to gain information necessary to help pursue Chaney further.

Hero, realizing that they must change their approach to salvage some form of victory, reaches an ‘all is lost moment’. When Mattie shoots Chaney, the recoil pushes her back where she falls into a snake pit and breaks an arm. Using the skeletal remains of a corpse in the pit, Mattie fashions a cross for under her arm, wide enough to prevent her falling further into the pit and to allowing her to call help.

The showdown where the hero and villain face off. When Mattie appears to lose her allies, Rooster and La Boef, in a gun fight, she believes she is on her own. Despite being already injured by Chaney, she confronts and shoots him.

The hero’s sacrifice is rewarded. In the act of shooting Chaney, the gun recoil drives Mattie backward causing her to stumble and fall into a snake pit, where she breaks her arm and is bitten by a poisonous snake. She knows she could fall further and acts to prevent this and plans to call out for help. Chaney’s ‘death’ proves to be a false ending and he torments her from above the pit. Rooster, recovered from his injuries, beats Chaney and throws him into the pit where he dies. Rooster, with La Boef’s help, rescues Mattie from the pit and he rides off with her to get medical treatment. She is ultimately reunited with her family.

3. What is the point of view?

First person.

4. What are the objects of desire?

External/Conscious: Avenge her father’s death and bring Chaney to justice.

Internal/Subconscious: To help restore a safer world, to win the respect and validation of men more powerful than her.

5. What is the controlling idea / theme?

Poetic justice prevails when a 14-year-old girl courageously uses all of her talents and independent-mindedness to gain support for hunting down her father’s killer and capture, or, shoot him.

6. What is the beginning hook, middle build and ending payoff?

Beginning Hook – When 14-year-old Mattie Ross’s father is murdered by Tom Chaney, she is faced with attending the undertaker and putting her father’s financial affairs in order. But she finds the townspeople of Fort Smith are taking no interest in catching Chaney, so must choose between returning home with her father’s body and supporting her family in their bereavement or getting justice. Undeterred by the town’s people attempts at constraining her, she attempts to convince Rooster Cogburn, a Marshall with true grit, to help her in her quest for justice.

Middle Build – When Mattie demonstrates to Rooster she can pay what he’s asked to do the job, she also has to shame him into helping. But although she successfully gains Rooster’s cooperation, Texas Marshall Le Boef and Rooster openly plan to cut Mattie out of the action. Upset that she has lost her deposit to Rooster (who has spent the money) she must decide whether to persist and inject herself into hunt risking further abandonment or attempt legal action to recover her squandered deposit. She persists only to find she needs Rooster’s help to stop La Boef from assaulting her.

Ending Payoff –. When Chaney captures Mattie, his ally Ned rides off to cash his forged banknotes. Ned threatens Chaney, if any harm comes to Mattie, he will not be paid. When Mattie attempts an escape, Chaney hits her over the head and in a subsequent gunfight, Rooster and La Boef appear mortally wounded. Mattie must decide whether to shoot Chaney to avenge her father but lose the triumph of a public hanging, or risk being killed. She shoots Chaney, but the gun recoil causes her fall into a snake pit where she breaks an arm and is poisoned by a snake bite. She is ultimately rescued by Rooster and La Boef, but as part of her medical treatment, her poisoned arm is amputated.