True Grit

Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of violence and death.

Mattie Ross is defined by her determination. She refuses to be cowed by social expectations, possessing a forcefulness of personality, which is evident in her actions as a 14-year-old and her narrator in old age. Mattie occupies this dual role in the novel, taking on the responsibilities of the narrator because she does not trust anyone else to tell her story. Much like in the organization of her father’s funeral, anyone but herself would do something wrong. Thus, Mattie’s personality is evident in her prose. She not only recounts her story, but she also litters her narration with advice for her audience and suggestions for Bible passages that others might find useful. Mattie tells her story exactly as she lived her life: on her own terms.

The younger version of Mattie Ross is a prototypical version of Mattie the narrator. She possesses the same fierce determination and precociousness that will eventually allow her older self to run a bank, a farm, and a family in a male-dominated world, yet her younger self is still coming to terms with her grief. Mattie’s story begins with the death of her father, a moment that changes her life.