Characters Come Together in True Grit by CharlesPortis

756 Words2 Pages

How many times do different people come together for one equal cause? In quest stories, such as True Grit by Charles Portis. All three main characters put their differences aside, and team up for one cause, which is to get Tom Chaney, dead or alive. Mattie Ross, the hero, Rooster Cogburn, the wise old man, and LeBoeuf, the helper guide, all make up the essential characters for any good quest story.

Mattie Ross is not a typical country girl, but rather a very typical quest type hero. Just like any other quest hero, she possesses the drive to accomplish her goal, the brains as to how to accomplish it, and the reason to embark on such a dangerous quest. Mattie wants to avenge her father’s death, Franks Ross, after Chaney shoots him in broad daylight, while he was just trying to help Chaney. When Frank is trying to talk to him, “Tom Chaney raised his rifle and shot him in the forehead, killing him instantly” (10). Mattie is devastated with this news, and sets out to find Tom Chaney, and kill him herself, or watch him be killed. She goes to Fort Smith and starts asking around for information regarding Frank Ross, her father. When Mattie looks for deputy marshals for the job, she picks Rooster Cogburn for the job, because she hears he is the one that will shoot Chaney on sight, and not just try and talk. Another way that Mattie is the hero is that she does not give in when Rooster and LeBeouf tell her to go back across the river, and they tell the ferrymen, ‘“Slim, take this girl to town and present her to the sheriff. She is a runaway. Her people are worried nearly to death about her. There is a fifty-dollar reward for her return”’ (136). LeBeouf is unquestionably telling a story about this, just to get Mattie to stay, whe...

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...ng ways away, with his sharps rifle. Rooster is pinned under his fallen horse, and Lucky is about to shoot him, but LeBeouf stops him dead in his tracks. Also, LeBeouf is the one that pulls Mattie out of the hole by calling, “‘I will try the horse”’(298). He ties one end of the rope to Little Blackie, and throws the other end down, and it finally gets Rooster and Mattie out of the hole. Thanks to his quick thinking, he saves both Rooster, and Mattie’s lives. If LeBeouf had not been present, the entire mission may have been in jeopardy.

How many times do different people come together for one equal cause? In True Grit, by Charles Portis, LeBeouf, the helper guide, Rooster Cogburn, the wise old man, and Mattie Ross, the hero, all make up the essential characters for any intriguing quest story. All three main characters team up for one satisfying ending.

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