Colin Powell once stated, “A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” Powell means that the only path available to achieve a goal, is the one where everyone brings their best characteristics to the table. This describes the characters in a quest story as they all bring their talents and best attributes to accomplish a common goal. Charles Portis’s True Grit is no exception as the three main characters resemble those of a quest story having characteristics that play a big part in achieving their goal. Mattie Ross resembles the quest hero persona, Rooster Cogburn as the wise old man, and Ranger LaBeouf as the hero’s helper and guide.
Mattie Ross possesses the characteristics of a quest novel hero in True Grit. For instance, A hero in a quest novel has a call to their adventure, an awakening of sorts. The call or herald will compel the hero to accomplish a goal. The hero has the impulse to create a dire change, and will do anything to make this change possible. Mattie Ross has this characteristic, making her a quest novel hero. After the tragic death of her father, she travels to Fort Smith, Arkansas, to tend to his business. Upon her arrival, Mattie realizes that the apprehension of her father’s murderer, Tom Chaney, is not the sheriff's first priority. Tom Chaney shoots her father in cold blood and escapes the scene easily as bystanders flee. Not one soul thought to achieve justice and capture the murderer, but instead they selfishly “scattered like poultry” (17) as Chaney escaped. Mattie expected officers would be on his trail immediately after the incident, but she was displeased to learn “how little had been done toward the apprehension of Tom Chaney. They had not even got hi...
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...illed a state senator”(79). He clearly has the information on Chaney as he knows his real name and his past doings. Certainly, LaBeouf is a perfect image of a helper in a quest story.
The main characters in True Grit by Charles Portis resemble the main characters in a quest novel. Mattie Ross resembles the hero as she has a calling to her journey and she has the necessary courage and resolve to accomplish her journey. Rooster Cogburn bears a resemblance to the wise old man figure in a quest novel because he possesses a special arcane knowledge and he poses as a surrogate father to the hero. Ranger Labeouf is the helper because he has a special skill and has a knowledge the wise old man lacks. A true hero does not always have to be a superhero, a wizard, or a good samaritan. Sometimes a true hero does not need magical powers but only a goal, courage, and true grit.
“The journey of the hero is about the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us…The hero journey is a symbol that binds …. (Phil Cousineau).” Mattie Ross learns this in True Grit, by Charles Portis, when she experiences the death of her father. She says, ”…Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas and robbed him of his life and his horses and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band(11)”. Frank Ross, Matties’ father, who was shot to death, by a man named, Tom Chaney. Mattie Ross is just 14 years old in the 1870’s, she states, “Nothing is free in this world except the grace of god, you must pay for everything.(pg?)” Personal growth often comes at a great expense. She is in beginning of the separation stage in a hero’s journey, which consists of the call and threshold. Harris and Thompson define the call as, “…invites the initiate into the adventure, offers her the opportunity to face the unknown, an imbalance or injustice in her life”(50). Her father getting killed and Mattie getting vengeance, is her invite. This is followed by, the threshold, known as the jumping off point. She states, “We hit the river running…we came out some little ways down the river.”(107) She has now made it into the Choctaw Nation to assist in the pursuit, in the unknown world, “a different world full of dangers and challenges (Harris and Thompson 50)”. Next, is the initiation and transformation then, the return to the known world. You can see, Mattie encounters her call when her father was killed.
“You must pay for everything in this world” (Portis 40). In the screen play of True Grit based on the novel by Charles Portis, the character of Mattie Ross goes on the hero’s journey to avenge her father’s death when she hears that her father was murdered in Fort Smith. Her decision to purse the killer takes her journey into Indian Territory. Throughout her hero’s journeys she will have to go through three stages, separation, initiation, and the return. Mattie will also have to complete the steps that are within the stages.
Do you think you would be able to persevere through many difficult obstacles wihout giving up? In True Grit by Charles Portis, Mattie Ross a 14 year old, her father was murdered by a man named Tom Chaney. Throughout the book she has to overcome many hardships and get through many obstacles to avenge her father’s death.
Catherynne M. Valente once noted, “Funny how "question" contains the word "quest" inside it, as though any small question asked is a journey through briars.” A simple question asked by Mattie Ross in True Grit by Charles Portis, testing the justice being done about her father’s murderer, develops into a quest as a U.S. Deputy Marshal, a Texas Ranger, and bold young girl embark on a journey they will never forget. Throughout their adventure, Mattie Ross, Rooster Cogburn and LaBoeuf seem to exactly fit the motif of quest characters. Mattie exactly portrays the hero of a quest novel with her determination and courage. Rooster Cogburn, on the other hand, depicts the Wise Old Man given the fact that he possesses important knowledge and acts as a surrogate father. LaBoeuf acts as the helper, because he posses some skills that are needed and help greatly throughout the story. Mattie Ross, Rooster Cogburn and LaBoeuf obtain the many qualities that characterize quest characters.
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, a simply written novel of an old man's singular struggle, while trying to catch a fish, against forces of the sea overpowering him and True Grit, by Charles Portis, a gripping western, placing you in the middle of the action during a girl's quest with two other men to get revenge for her father's murder, are two works united in several ways. Many similarities throughout both works appeared evident. Plot, theme, and characterization categorize those similarities.
Mattie Ross, a character from the novel True Grit fits the role of the quest hero in many ways. The first way is that a herald calls her to the quest. In every quest story there is a herald that calls the quest hero to “spring” into action. Tom Chaney kills her father. This turns into Matties herald. She wants revenge on Tom Chaney and to see him killed by her own hands or hanged in Fort Smith. She tells Rooster,‘“I want him to know he is being punished for killing my father”’(65) because she fears that Tom Chaney is only going to be punished for killing a senator in a different state. She takes matters into her own hands because the state is not doing anything about it. Another example of Mattie being the quest hero is that she has a near death experience. In almost all quest stories the quest hero has a near death experience or a type of banishment. For instance, Mattie falls into a deep pit full of snakes. This is an experience of death. She even thinks to herself “Thank god. Someone has come. Soon I will be out of this hellish place” (240). Mattie is in the pit for a while, and the pit is “hellish” meaning she views the place where the dead go. Wh...
Essential to overcoming adversity is the ability to cause change in yourself and others. In the book, Fablehaven by Brandon Mull, Seth has to learn to be more careful. This helps him to be a hero because he gets less reckless. Ultimately, Brandon mull teaches us that courage can make you do great things no matter what’s in your way.
Readers tend to idolize protagonists of stories. Atticus Finch, Huckleberry Finn, Harry Potter – they are all characters that possess a positive tone from the author. In pieces of writing associated with fantasy, however, it would only be more suitable to call these characters, heroes. Particularly in high fantasy, the hero ventures on an aptly named “hero’s journey.” However, the hero will always discover the “call to adventure” at the beginning of the story. At that point, the protagonist realizes that he or she possesses a unique ability. In high fantasy, that ability generally involves magic. Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea serves as a prime example of this notion. The protagonist, Ged, goes on a journey to quench his thirst for better understanding of wizardry. Another example of fantasy would be L. Frank Baum’s “The Dummy that Lived,” in which a fairy’s mischievous acts lead to a chain of trouble for the victim. Both Le Guin and Baum use magic in high fantasy literature to symbolize the need for maturity in a protagonist, or the creature casting the spell, and therefore promote the importance of responsibility to those who hold great power.
The movie uses the idea of what life used to be like for men and women, and then goes against that idea almost completely. Rather than having the woman character stay at home and clean and take care of the family while the Marshalls go hunt down the killer, the movie has the female lead going out and tracking down the killer as well. Women were not supposed to be independent, and they were not supposed to be able to do things on their own and provide for themselves. Instead, they were supposed to be very dependent on men, and very soft-spoken people. Mattie Ross is a prime example of how a woman can do more than what a society believes she can do. True Grit is a movie that shows how the lives of men and women have evolved since the Western era. In today’s society, the idea of gender roles does not really exist. Women are now being accepted to do things that only men were allowed to do, such as shooting guns and working outside of the
“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles”~Christopher Reeve (actor). In a 1912 review that angered writer Jack London, the author of The Call of the Wild, the critic Philo M. Blake, Jr. complained of the apparent barbarism that characterizes many of London’s heroes. Barbarism means an absence of culture or civilization which often includes extreme cruelty or brutality. The statement made by Philo M. Blake, Jr. is truly false about the protagonist Buck in The Call of the Wild. To make clear, Buck is the main character who is stolen and sold north for the Klondike gold rush. Buck has to adapt to the North, and he has to learn how to survive in the gruesome Canadian wild.
If you went off on a quest would you come back a changed person? “The Hero’s Journey isn’t just a pattern from myth. It’s the pattern of life, growth, and experience for all of us”(Harris and Thompson 49). Charles Portis is the author of True Grit, a western novel that takes place through the Indian Territory in Arkansas. In the novel True Grit, the character Mattie Ross, shows an interesting example of “The Hero’s Journey.” As we read we learn she is very outspoken and strong willed, she always wants things to be her way. Mattie shows us a great example of being very independent at the age of fourteen, but after her journey does she truly change as a person?
The perfect image of a true hero is Beowulf. His courage and confidence seems to come naturally. He is the ideal man; he puts others before himself and has amazing physical and mental strength. He is so revered that he can boast about his achievements without seeming vain. “I had greater strength on the sea, more ordeals on the waves as any other man.” (Luizza 69)
In the article “Grit” Angela Duckworth defines grit as “perseverance and passion for very long term goals” Pg 2. The quote defines grit as consistently working hard toward your long-term goal. For instance, if we see high school students, most of them are not interested in school. They are just waiting to drop out of school and live a simple life, on the other hand, there are some students who don’t want to drop out of school because they have grit for their long-term goals. In the same way, from the moment the readers are introduced to the First WES Moore, he has an inner sense of goodness which manifests itself in his grit. He strives for his goals with determination and courage from his mother. Unlike him, the other Wes has an inner sense of instability which leads him to constantly make bad decisions repeatedly and manifests his grit as negative and unable to make well-thought decisions. The First Wes had grit toward his long-term goals. In the book the author Wes Moore explains, how the First Wes Moore changed “As I sat in the other end of the line, listening to my mother talk about ‘Sacrifice’….” pg96.the quote explains that, the mother and grandparents made many sacrifices to put him through school, and make him successful with a bright future. He faced many pure pushers in life in military school because of his good up bring and education he always made the right decisions. As an example, one day Wes and Dalio his friend was hanging out and suddenly a car pulled over and punched him in his face. Wes instead of taking revenge, he thought about his mother sacrifice and ignore the
There is another type of hero that almost no one is aware of. In the poorest areas of the country, live mostly minorities and other ethic background. All their lives they’ve been expected to work harder and expected not succeed in life. Some individuals living in poverty with a determination to succeed work hard all of their lives to become what everybody doubted they could. Escaping the crime, drugs, and prostitution is enough to escape hell, even if they don’t go to college. Despite of their financial problems, drug and crime surroundings, or difficulties in the language skills, their desire to triumph fuels their persistence. Those who make it to success are the few living examples of the purest form of hero anyone can be. They are not only their own heroes but also the heroes of the poor children who dream of becoming like them someday.
Grit is a form of defining a action that takes place when the going gets tough but you find a way to cope or fix the situation, thats called being gritty. Mrs.Duckworth said that they did an experiment on West Point cadets she said “even with such rigorous admission process ,about 1in 20 cadets drop out during the summer of training before their first academic year”. What makes the others not drop out? Good grades had nothing to do with the fact that they could not perform physically, it is all mental and if you prepare enough you will achieve.This has really motivated me tremendously because I know that just being smart wont get you everywhere but being well rounded will.,Having that extra drive to finish your goal. This is important because while not achieving your goal is bad , not achieving it while your so close to achieving it must ...