Feminist critical positions in True Grit

For this blog post I will be referring to Mattie from True Grit, the story of Mattie who is on a quest to avenge her father’s death by her family’s servant. During her journey, she hired a Marshal to help her find the culprit, and along the way she met a Ranger who happened to be looking for the same man for the bounty. On their way, they set out to look for clues on the criminal's whereabouts and found he had joined a gang of bandits.Their adventure continued to unfold as the story progressed.

Mattie is the protagonist and the only female character in the story. In True Grit, Mattie juxtaposes most western stories that portray female characters as a “damsels in distress”; she never gave me the impression of a weak minded damsel even though she became one herself when she got captured by the gang. Mattie is mainly portrayed as a strong-willed woman with a stubborn streak who has a tendency to take matters into her own hands, and see through anything she set out to do. Throughout the story, she never went through a character development, neither in the epilogue of the story. In the book, it mentioned that after the journey she never changed her personality and never got married. This showed that Mattie did not feel obligated to take on the stereotypical role that most western female would have in that era.

The other characters reactions towards her behavior varied. The Marshal portrayed her as a stubborn girl. He treated her like a kid and tried to keep her out of the mission to keep her out of danger. However, because of Mattie’s stubbornness, she was determined to stick to the deal. Unlike the “stereotypical” western woman, Mattie’s bravery and determination separates her from the rest of the women. The Ranger had a different reaction towards Mattie’s behaviour, he found that Mattie had a strong determination and attitude that was not found amongst other women. In the Ranger’s first encounter with Mattie, he flirted with her but got shut down immediately, causing their relationship to become bitter. The Ranger was used to male dominant societies where women did not have the confidence to voice their opinions against men. However, Mattie voiced her discomfort towards the Ranger which angered him. Throughout the story the Ranger became more respectful towards Mattie and her determination. This was an unusual situation as the Ranger was not used to having women voice themselves and show courage towards men.