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True Grit and American Mythology

True grit is a Western, and while the fact that it features a female protagonist may be unorthodox to it's time, it shares the same values that most American Literature seems to glorify. Our protagonist, Mattie, is a strong character. Her strength stems from one thing, featured in the book's title: Her grit. American mythology loves grit. Grit is a resilience against opression, a strength in the face of adversity. Grit is the reason the United States fought the Revolutionary war, it's the value that drives success in the so-called 'American Dream', and it's why we glamorize fighting one's way to the top of corporations in a capitalistic economy. Grit is to willingly place blinders on yourself, to block out what isn't helping you in your goal.

Grit has a capacity for evil however. If you never look around in your pursuit of what you want, you never question if what you are doing is right. That is the failing in America's idealization of grit, as it's a value that feeds powerfully of of potential. Now every person on the planet has huge potential, both for good and for bad. If any one person can find their drive, their grit, they can harness that potential and make it a reality.

In True Grit, Mattie is a mean haggler, a stubborn companion, and resilient when facing those who have wronged her. She won't stop, and she won't let anyone tell her no. Her companion for her journey, Rooster, also has grit. However, it's hinted that his grit has lead him from the righteous path and into the shadows on past occasions. He's a character that is neither good nor bad, but hard in everything he does. The American West is a lawless land, a land of true freedom and people live free and die just as freely. With that danger the capacity to survive is valued above all others.

The cutthroat past of the country makes grit an enduring focus of success, as we still live in a free market. Every person in the USA is climbing a ladder alongside every other citizen. The ladder is rickety, the rungs too far apart, and some may find that they don't like the view from the top. It's dangerous on this ladder, and you sacrifice time, strength, and comfort to continue upwards. The novel "True Grit" endures because the rough ladder of survival in the Old West still mirrors the longer, more well-worn ladder we climb today. We marvel at those around us who claw and clamber over broken rungs with a grimace on their face but above all else keep climbing, those like Mattie or like Rooster, and we even hold a certain respect for those who climb over others who are weaker than them. It's all magnificent strength, malicious or righteous, the drive that built the country, true grit.

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