In many ways, True Grit is an examination of what people expect of children. Because Mattie is only fourteen years old, people repeatedly write her off, making inaccurate assumptions about her based on her age. This dynamic is compounded by the fact that she is a woman in the Wild West, where everyone believes only men are fit for danger and adventure. Despite these prejudices, though, Mattie remains undeterred by what people think of her, refusing to let her age and gender stop her from behaving independently and courageously—she even manages to leverage her unassuming position from time to time. In addition, the mere fact that she makes her way into Indian Territory and successfully carries out her revenge plot against Chaney is proof that she’s capable of defying society’s expectations. As a result, Portis suggests that age and gender are arbitrary indications of a person’s worth or capabilities.
It is clear from the very beginning of True Grit that the society in which Mattie lives has certain assumptions about young girls—namely, that they are helpless and depend upon adults. “People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood,” Mattie writes, outlining that, although she is a motivated and independent young person, very few people take her seriously. This means that a number of adults try to take advantage of her when she comes to Fort Smith without a proper guardian. For instance, when she visits the undertaker to identify and collect her father’s body, the man capitalizes on the fact that she is a child by overcharging her for the cost of shipping the coffin back to her home. Yarnell—a black man who used to work for her father—takes her aside and points out that she’s getting ripped off, but Mattie sees no way around the situation, since she is young and Yarnell isn’t a powerful white man, meaning that neither of them have power in the situation. “We will not haggle with him,” she tells Yarnell, clearly understanding that it will be impossible to stand up to the undertaker. In this moment, then, readers see the frustrating reality that Mattie is at a disadvantage simply because of her age and gender.
Despite the hardships Mattie faces because of her youth and gender, there are certain contexts in which she can use society’s expectations to her benefit. This is the case when she visits Stonehill, the man who sold her father a group of ponies just before his death. Because Mattie’s father is dead, the family no longer has any use for the ponies, so Mattie tries to convince Stonehill to buy them back. This is a difficult deal to make, since Stonehill has been trying to get rid of the ponies for a long time, but Mattie surprises him by using her own disadvantages to her favor. “I will take it to law,” she says when he refuses to buy back the ponies. “You must do as you think best,” he replies, clearly assuming there’s no “credence” in a threat from a little girl. “We will see if a widow and her three small children can get fair treatment in the courts of this city,” she says, and he immediately becomes anxious, beginning to see that she might actually be able to harm him. What’s fascinating about this moment is Stonehill’s gradual realization that the very thing that made him think of Mattie as unthreatening—the fact that she’s a young, fatherless girl—is exactly what would enable her to win a court case against him. This is a shrewd rhetorical move on Mattie’s part, one that demonstrates her understanding of the world and, thus, her maturity. As such, readers see that she defies Stonehill’s expectations of her by embracing those expectations and weaponizing them against him.
People underestimate more than Mattie’s negotiation skills. Because she isn’t a man, people assume she doesn’t have what it takes to be bold. Crucially, Tom Chaney makes this grave miscalculation when Mattie finally finds him in Indian Territory. Having happened upon the criminal while he’s giving water to a group of horses, she pulls a gun on him. Even though she certainly has the gumption to shoot him, she has had very little experience with guns, which is why she forgets to cock it. This gives Chaney an undue amount of confidence, reassuring him that Mattie isn’t a true threat. In fact, he’s so confident that he points out that she’ll have to cock the gun if she intends to shoot him. When Mattie goes to do this, he coaches her, saying, “All the way back till it locks.” Finally, she manages to prepare the weapon, at which point she says, “You will not go with me?” In response, he arrogantly says, “I think not. It is just the other way around. You are going with me.” Throughout this interaction, he fails to recognize her resolve because he’s convinced that a young girl would never be able to shoot down a criminal like him. In other words, his failure to take Mattie seriously allows him to let his guard down and, as a result, she shoots him in the stomach. Once again, then, Mattie subverts expectations, effectively benefitting from the fact that people underestimate her. In turn, Portis intimates that although society might subject one to certain patronizing expectations, these expectations can actually present a person with an opportunity to empower themselves.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Maturity, Independence, and Expectations ThemeTracker
Maturity, Independence, and Expectations Quotes in True Grit
People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day.
We went to the man’s office and I signed some coroners papers. The charge for the coffin and the embalming was something over sixty dollars. The shipping charge to Dardanelle was $9.50.
Yarnell took me outside the office. He said, “Miss Mattie, that man trying to stick you.”
I said, “Well, we will not haggle with him.”
He said, “That is what he counting on.”
I said, “We will let it go.”
I did not mind sleeping with Grandma Turner but I thought Mrs. Floyd had taken advantage of me. Still, I saw nothing to be gained from making a fuss at that hour. She already had my money and I was tired and it was too late to look for lodging elsewhere.
“I cannot make an agreement with a child. You are not accountable. You cannot be bound to a contract.”
“Lawyer Daggett will back up any decision I make. You may rest easy on that score. You can confirm any agreement by telegraph.”
“This is a damned nuisance!" he exclaimed. “How am I to get my work done? I have a sale tomorrow.”
“There can be no settlement after I leave this office,” said I. “It will go to law.”
He worried with his eyeglasses for a minute and then said, “I will pay two hundred dollars to your father’s estate when I have in my hand a letter from your lawyer absolving me of all liability from the beginning of the world to date. It must be signed by your lawyer and your mother and it must be notarized.
Right around 9 o’clock I went to the stock barn and exchanged my release for three hundred and twenty-five dollars in greenbacks. I had held longer amounts in my hand but this money, I fancied, would be pleasing out of proportion to its face value. But no, it was only three hundred and twenty-five dollars in paper and the moment fell short of my expectations. I noted the mild disappointment and made no more of it than that.
“Yes, a splendid inducement. Well, perhaps it will all work out to your satisfaction. I shall pray that you return safely, your efforts crowned with success. It may prove to be a hard journey.”
“The good Christian does not flinch from difficulties.”
“Neither does he rashly court them. The good Christian is not willful or presumptuous.”
“I want him to know he is being punished for killing my father. It is nothing to me how many dogs and fat men he killed in Texas.”
“You can let him know that,” said Rooster. “You can tell him to his face. You can spit on him and make him eat sand out of the road. You can put a ball in his foot and I will hold him while you do it. But we must catch him first. We will need some help. You are being stiff-necked about this. You are young. It is time you learned that you cannot have your way in every little particular. Other people have got their interests too.”
“When I have bought and paid for something I will have my way. Why do you think I am paying you if not to have my way?”
“In my country you can ride for days and see no ground water. I have lapped filthy water from a hoofprint and was glad to have it. You don’t know what discomfort is until you have nearly perished for water.”
Rooster said, “If I ever meet one of you Texas waddies that says he never drank from a horse track I think I will shake his hand and give him a Daniel Webster cigar.”
“Then you don’t believe it?” asked LaBoeuf.
“I believed it the first twenty-five times I heard it.”
“Maybe he did drink from one,” said I. “He is a Texas Ranger.”
“Is that what he is?” said Rooster. “Well now, I can believe that.”
LaBoeuf said, “You are getting ready to show your ignorance now, Cogburn. I don’t mind a little personal chaffing but I won’t hear anything against the Ranger troop from a man like you.”
I thought it was in LaBoeuf’s favor that his first shot had struck and killed Lucky Ned Pepper’s horse. If he had been shooting from panic would he have come so near to hitting the bandit chieftain with his first shot? On the other hand, he claimed to be an experienced officer and rifleman, and if he had been alert and had taken a deliberate shot would he not have hit his mark? Only LaBoeuf knew the truth of the matter. I grew impatient with their wrangling over the point. I think Rooster was angry because the play had been taken away from him and because Lucky Ned Pepper had beaten him once again.
“No, I am going along,” said I.
LaBoeuf said, “She has come this far.”
Rooster said, “It is far enough.”
I said, “Do you think I am ready to quit when we are so close?”
LaBoeuf said, “There is something in what she says, Cogburn. I think she has done fine myself. She has won her spurs, so to speak. That is just my personal opinion.”
LaBoeuf pulled one of his revolvers and got two dodgers out of the sack and tossed them both up. He fired very rapidly but he only hit one. Captain Finch tried it with two and missed both of them. Then he tried with one and made a successful shot. Rooster shot at two and hit one. They drank whiskey and used up about sixty corn dodgers like that. None of them ever hit two at one throw with a revolver but Captain Finch finally did it with his Winchester repeating rifle, with somebody else throwing. It was entertaining for a while but there was nothing educational about it. I grew more and more impatient with them.
I said, “Come on, I have had my bait of this. I am ready to go. Shooting cornbread out here on this prairie is not taking us anywhere.”
By then Rooster was using his rifle and the captain was throwing for him. “Chunk high and not so far out this time,” said he.
I said, “If you refuse to go I will have to shoot you.”
He went on with his work and said, “Oh? Then you had better cock your piece.”
I had forgotten about that. I pulled the hammer back with both thumbs.
“All the way back till it locks,” said Chaney.
“I know how to do it,” said I. When it was ready I said, “You will not go with me?”
“I think not,” said he. “It is just the other way around. You are going with me.”
I pointed the revolver at his belly and shot him down. The explosion kicked me backwards and caused me to lose my footing and the pistol jumped from my hand.
Who was to blame? Deputy Marshal Rooster Cogburn! The gabbing drunken fool had made a mistake of four miles and led us directly into the robbers’ lair. A keen detective! Yes, and in an earlier state of drunkenness he had placed faulty caps in my revolver, causing it to fail me in a time of need. That was not enough; now he had abandoned me in this howling wilderness to a gang of cutthroats who cared not a rap for the blood of their own companions, and how much less for that of a helpless and unwanted youngster! Was this what they called grit in Fort Smith? We called it something else in Yell County!
I hurriedly cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger. The charge exploded and sent a lead ball of justice, too long delayed, into the criminal head of Tom Chaney.
Yet I was not to taste the victory. The kick of the big pistol sent me reeling backward. I had forgotten about the pit behind me!
The lawyer had blamed Rooster for taking me on the search for Tom Chaney and had roundly cursed him and threatened to prosecute him in a court action. I was upset on hearing it. I told Lawyer Daggett that Rooster was in no way to blame, and was rather to be praised and commended for his grit. He had certainly saved my life.
Whatever his adversaries, the railroads and steamboat companies, may have thought, Lawyer Daggett was a gentleman, and on hearing the straight of the matter he was embarrassed by his actions. He said he still considered the deputy marshal had acted with poor judgment, but in the circumstances was deserving an apology.
I know what they said even if they would not say it to my face. People love to talk. They love to slander you if you have any substance. They say I love nothing but money and the Presbyterian Church and that is why I never married. They think everybody is dying to get married. It is true that I love my church and my bank. What is wrong with that? I will tell you a secret. Those same people talk mighty nice when they come in to get a crop loan or beg a mortgage extension! I never had the time to get married but it is nobody’s business if I am married or not married. I care nothing for what they say. I would marry an ugly baboon if I wanted to and make him cashier. I never had the time to fool with it. A woman with brains and a frank tongue and one sleeve pinned up and an invalid mother to care for is at some disadvantage, although I will say I could have had two or three old untidy men around here who had their eyes fastened on my bank. No, thank you!
