Comparative Essay Between The Old Man and the Sea and True Grit
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.
First of all, in plot, the works share the same event progression. An early start, a determined drive, a final showdown, and an attempt to continue the achievement. The intentions were to simply accomplish no matter what the circumstance. The Old Man set out early in the morning as indicated here, '…he began to row out of the harbour in the dark.'; In True Grit, Mattie, a girl bent on avenging her father's death, Rooster, a federal marshal, and LaBoeuf, a Texas Ranger, set off when, 'It was still dark outside and bitter cold although mercifully there was little wind.'; The dedication involved in the characters' pursuits becomes more evident later on. 'He is a great fish,'; the old man told himself, 'and I must convince him not to learn his strength…'; As it was also with the Mattie from True Grit. 'I knew both of them (Rooster and LaBoeuf) were waiting for me to complain or say something that would make me out to be a 'tenderfoot.' I was determined not to give them anything to chaff me about.'; Her intents were not purely superficial though. Her anger toward '… a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney,'; was a key factor in driving her to achieve her purpose. Finally, after toiling with the fish, the Old Man, '…took all his pain and what was left of his strength and his long gone pride and he put it against the fish's agony,'; in his last bout with the great fish. The same sort of event occurs at the same point in the story line in True Grit. 'Rooster said, 'Fill your hand you son of a bitch!' and he took the reins in his teeth and pulled the other saddle revolver and drove his spurs into the flanks of his strong horse Bo and charged directly at the bandits.
“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.
Storytellers use the picaresque form and the quest motif as standard literary devices in film, song, and the written word. The characters in such a story encounter many trials, setbacks, and triumphs on their quest to find what they so diligently seek. There is often much adventure and drama along they way, leading to their ultimate test. The three works discussed in this essay embody these themes. Voltaire's Candide, A Narrative of a Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, and Terry Gilliam's masterpiece The Fisher King present very different journeys using vastly different characters and time periods. Each, however, examines the human spirit as each main character navigates both grizzly and joyous circumstances. End in the end, all is endured in the name of their quest.
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.
works of literature have tremendous amounts of similarity especially in the characters. Each character is usually unique and symbolizes the quality of a person in the real world. But in both stories, each character was alike, they represented honor, loyalty, chivalry, strength and wisdom. Each character is faced with a difficult decision as well as a journey in which they have to determine how to save their own lives. Both these pieces of literatures are exquisite and extremely interesting in their own ways.
Hemingway’s narrative technique, then, is characterized by a curt style that emphasizes objectivity through highly selected details, flat and neutral diction, and simple declarative sentences capable of ironic understatements; by naturalistic presentation of actions and facts, with no attempt of any kind by the author to influence the reader; by heavy reliance on dramatic dialogue of clipped, scrappy forms for building plot and character; and by a sense of connection between some different stories so that a general understanding of all is indispensable to a better understanding of each. He thus makes the surface details suggest rather than tell everything they have to tell, hence the strength of his “iceberg.” His short stories, accordingly, deserve the reader’s second or even third reading.
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
Both narratives compare as timeless tales of reputable heroes. They both include similar plots of long journeys back home. The main characters’ flaws are arrogance which is the source of many of their troubles.
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?
This may be true in all cases, but it is clearly predominant in Ernest Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea. It is evident that Hemingway modeled the main character, Santiago after his own person, and that the desires, the mentality, and the lifestyle of the old man are identical to Hemingway's.
There are different people in this world, from varying extremes, some come are timid in their ways and like to stay to themselves, some are outgoing and the popular type that like to be in the center of attention and go to parties. And then I feel that there is a third type of person, a person that understands what he needs to do, when it needs to be done, and gets things done no matter the type of hardship one would face to see such things finish out. I am talking about people that live their lives with valor, courage, and braveness. This brings me to a few questions that I believe a few people would ask about the movie “True Grit”, the courage Mattie possessed was it physical, moral, or both; would I be one to describe Rooster as a brave man; and with a change of main character from the 1969 version to the 2010 version is there a difference in who the story believes has “grit”.
Each of the characters in the movie “True Grit” displayed differing levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy throughout the course of the movie. The Texas Ranger, La Boeuf, displayed the highest self-esteem score, 9, out of the three main characters. This high self-esteem can be observed in the way he constantly talks about his status as a Texas Ranger and in how he was always sure that he would find Tom Chaney no matter how far he ran. His self-efficacy was rated at high 7 due to his persistence in chasing Tom Chaney and his belief in his own ability to shoot Ned Pepper at such a long distance toward the end of the movie.
Redemption is a matter of honor. Throughout the book True Grit, redemption is best demonstrated through three characters. These main characters compensate for their faults and salvage others lives. The book True Grit further shows, even the worst people can redeem themselves.
Many times, stories by Ernest Hemingway have much religious influence and symbolism. In The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, numerous occurrences in the life of Santiago the fisherman are similar to the incidents recorded in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The names of the characters translated from Spanish to English are just one of those many similarities.
The Old Man and the Sea is a heroic tale of man’s strength pitted against forces he cannot control. It is a tale about an old Cuban fisherman and his three-day battle with a giant Marlin. Through the use of three prominent themes; friendship, bravery, and Christianity; the “Old Man and the Sea” strives to teach important life lessons to the reader.