True Grit Based on the Novel by Charles Portis

The Journey

“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.

In the beginning of the film, Mattie Ross starts her journey of separation when she leaves home to get her father’s body after he has been killed. The first stage of the journey is the call. This stage, “invites the initiate to the adventure, offers her the opportunity to face the unknown and gain something of physical or spiritual value….the initiate has had something taken from her, or her family. Her quest is to reclaim it”(Harris and Thompson 50). For Mattie, this means her father’s body is the thing that needs to be reclaimed. She Is called to adventure when she was “just fourteen years of age when a coward by the name of Tom Chaney shot [her] father down and robbed him of his life, and his horse, and two California gold pieces he carried”(Coens’ 1). In other words, Mattie has received her call. The second stage of the journey is the threshold, or “’the “jumping off point’ for the adventure…. Once past the threshold… the initiate enters the unknown, a different world of dangers and challenges” (Harris and Thompson 50). For Mattie, the threshold comes when she crosses the river into Indian Territory. Before she sets off she tells her mother in a letter, “I am about to embark on a great adventur...

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...irely part of the society that she lives in, just because she is not married or has any children and she clearly shows she cares nothing about that. With that Mattie’s has completed all the stages and steps of the hero’s journey.

Mattie might not look like a hero to the people in her community, but she is a hero to herself for going out to avenge her father’s blood and she is a hero because she has experienced all the stages and steps within of the hero’s journey. “Even if the characters aren’t real, the journeys they take and challenges they face are reflections of the real journeys and challenges we all face in life” (Harris and Thompson 52).Although she is not real and maybe in today’s world her challenges are not what we would face, it still shows us that we all have challenges we face in life. “There are no shortcuts on the road of life. Not a single one.”