Analysis Of True Grit By Charles Portis

Firm and Determination True grit! What is true grit? Well it means to have determination, and to be firm. In the novel True Grit by Charles Portis it shows that two of the characters have grit and one lacks it. A fourteen year old girl Mattie Ross goes off to look for the man that killed her father, so that she can avenge her father’s blood. When she heads to Fort Smith she seeks for the help of one of the meanest U.S Marshall, Rooster Cogburn. As they team up they go off to look for the killer in the Indiana Territory. These two characters show that they have determination and are firm, and show that they have true grit while one shows that they lack it which is Tom Chaney the killer. Mattie Ross is a young girl of only fourteen years of

Knowing that he is a killer, and now is on the run because he doesn’t want to face the consequences of his actions. At the beginning we know that he is a gambler, and if he doesn’t win he gets cranky. After playing cards he losses and starts to say that he was robbed, which clearly shows that he doesn’t want to lose. Now that he is angry Mattie’s father Frank Ross tries to calm him down, but he is really angry that he decides to shoot him, which then kills him. Tom Chaney doesn’t stand up for what he did. He just decides to take off. Mattie explains, “Tom Chaney raised his rifle and shot him in the forehead, killing him instantly…Chaney took my father’s purse from his warm body and ripped open the trouser hand and took the gold pieces too” (Portis 16). This shows that he didn’t care about what he did and decide to take off with the money that he had robbed from Mattie’s father. Toward the end when Mattie is captured by Tom Chaney, he strikes her in the head with the pistol. Mattie narrates, “Chaney grabbed my coat from behind and pulled me up short…Chaney was cursing me and he struck me in the head with the pistol barrel” (Portis 198). Here he shows that he doesn’t care who he hurts all he wants is to get away and not face the consequences to the law, and he just wants to be right about everything and he does not take a no for an answer. All the actions that Tom Chaney shows throughout the novel, just shows that he does not have true grit and he is only a