Week 3: Reading Mythology True Grit

Week Three: Reading Mythology True Grit

True Grit isn't based off of a real story but rather the author doing a lot of research into Western themes. The landscape is very wild and open large fields and rivers it's a large view and very "American" and open without rules this leaves more room for the narrative like fighting and horseback riding almost like it's an arena. Right and wrong in western movies are also kinda grey. It is in a traditional sense of genre is about morality and law. True Grit makes a point of not really knowing who's good or bad. We as the audience don't know who the hero really is. The genre of Western is a melodrama. Girls aren't typically in western movies as a main character. But the narrative is told by a young 14 year old girl Mattie Ross who has a interesting perspective and point of view of all the characters. My own interpretation is that Mattie is grounded and more mature for dealing with problems in the novel. She seems genuine even if sometimes we don't know if we should trust the narrative. I think she is trustworthy because this is her avenging and getting justice for her father who was murdered. Her character has more of hero intentions and doesn't have a grey area its either black or white for her. She's not as a hateful person trying to get revenge but more of someone who wants to bring justice to the person who murdered her father.

The author wanted the retelling and dialogue to be from Mattie and how she is seeing things and hearing them. In both versions of the movie and novel it feels like there is a ton of dialogue. I like how Rooster and Mattie can relate to each other and he even begins to call her "little sister" and has that line of friendship and family familiarity. We can see Rooster starting to care for her and protect her. We can see they are a duo and and they both show heroic traits like being bold and courageous. They both want to get to their goal and I think this reflects in both the title and the characters. She never questions herself or second guesses, she perceivers and has no regrets for her actions. Opposed to LaBoeuf who's a arrogant and do things his own way. I find him to be a annoying character but I think thats the point. He's just there to balance out the duos personalities. He's always out to prove himself and trying to prove himself. We don't really know his motive for things or whats about him.