True Grit Analysis

Click, clack, click, clack, chink, clang, are the sounds heard as the sheriff walks into town. His boot spurs are smashing and the bar door swings open. Rooster, the sheriff, sits down for a drink. Later that day, a girl named Mattie Ross calls upon him. Her father has been murdered and she needs his help to track down the murderer. This is the beginning of True Grit by Charles Portis, a western novel first published in 1968. True Grit is told from the perspective of the Mattie. The question is how would True Grit be different if narrated by Sheriff Rooster Cogburn?
As many read the novel they will observe that Mattie is a straight forward, get the job done kind of person, and a serious character. She is in this expedition and journey to gain revenge for her father. This means that the little humor that is actually in the book either does not come from her or is extremely subtle. She’s not one to joke around. This means that the book relies a lot on the action scenes such as the shootout in the dugout. In the perspective of Rooster, however, the story would be much different. Rooster is laid …show more content…
This makes conversation between the two awkward. This also means that Mattie has not known Rooster her whole life and doesn’t know what kind of man he is. As the story progresses, Mattie becomes more antiquated with Rooster’s ways and has come to trust him more and more. The only problem is that Rooster is faced with the same challenge of whether or not to trust Mattie. He’s being paid after the ordeal, meaning that Mattie could take the money and run. In Rooster’s perspective we would hear the questioning behind closed doors that is not heard by Mattie in the original True Grit. Like what Ursus Wehrli said,” I like to turn things upside down, to watch pictures and situations from another perspective,” the story would reveal completely different emotions if Rooster were the