True Grit and Mythology

Mythology is a term used to describe the beliefs or various collected stories for a group of people. Similar to Greek mythology, our Western society has a sort of mythology based on the Old West times. Mythology is often used to describe events that happen or how one's morals shall be based. This is true for the Old Western society as well. To examine these, we take a look at True Grit.

True Grit is about a girl, named Maddie, who seeks revenge against the man who killed her father, Tom Chaney. She seeks out the employ of Marshall Cogburn in order to see justice down. However, what exactly is justice? In True Grit, justice seems to be determined by the marshalls and the court in relation to how the public views it. This shows a distinct difference between the ones with power and the ones who lack it. We see this translated today with our own police forces, wherein they act as the law of the land. In the novel we see countless people killed, but it was only just when our heroes did it. Our society reflects this, where police can kill someone, in order to save others and bring villains to justice.

On the topic of morality, the novel displays quite a lot of incidents that we might find immoral, however we see most of these acts done by the bad guys, like it's saying that you could end up losing your life if you do these things. Which is true. However, there are several immoral things that the Marshall does, but is viewed as moral because he did it. One particular example is near the end of the novel, where the horse finally collapses. Ultimately, Cogburn ends up killing the creature which we would normally view as immoral, but because he did it and he had a good reason to do it, then it's fine. This highlights how things are viewed in today's society (such as humanely killing something). If someone kills someone else, then they're a murderer (unless there are special circumstances), but if a cop kills someone, then they're a hero because they saved you and countless others.

On a closing note, mythology is typically used by people to explain circumstances and act as a moral guide. True Grit, which is based on the western mythology, achieves much of the same. It tells you when it's proper to kill someone, or what to do if you seek justice. The opposite exists there as well, if you kill unlawfully and are a bad person, then death awaits you (or jail time). It even shows someone who was bad for being involved, but redeems himself by helping our heroes, even if he still dies.

I watched the 2010 version of the movie, and while there are notable differences, I believe it holds up to the novel. It still gets the point the novel was trying to show. Overall, True Grit is a novel on human nature and the virtues one should uphold, much like most mythologies in the world.