How True Grit by Charles Portis is like The Dark Knight Rises

Batman, Robin , and Alfred the butler are all in the quest movie The Dark Knight Rises. Batman is the quest hero, Robin is the helper/guide, and alfred is the wise old man who gives advice. This quest story has a lot in common as the book True Grit by Charles Portis. In the quest novel Mattie Ross fits the description of the quest hero. Reuben (Rooster) Cogburn fits the wise old man because he acts as a fatherly figure towards Mattie Ross, and knows the gang that Tom Chaney (the villain) is with. LaBoeuf fits the helper guide because he is Helping to catch the murderer Tom Chaney.

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...

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...e Sharps Rifle. Labeouf is also extremely accurate with the rifle. He even saves Rooster Cogburn with “Laboeuf’s wonderful shot at the moving rider was over six hundred yards!”(231). Laboeuf’s skill and weapon prove their worth. If Labeouf was not there, both Mattie and Rooster Cogburn would have died.

All of these characters are essential to the plot and story of the novel “True Grit” . Mattie Ross is important because with no quest hero there is no quest story. Rooster is important because he supplies information on the gang of robbers. Laboeuf is important because Mattie would not have made it if he had not been there to pull Mattie out of the pit. Overall, Mattie Ross achieved her goal of seeing Tom Chaney killed, Rooster saved Mattie, and Labeouf got his money. Even though Mattie gets her arm amputated, she lives happily ever after with her bank and her church!