True Grit

Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of violence and death.

“Here is what happened.”

Mattie’s style of narration is direct and declarative. Even in the opening paragraphs, she asserts the veracity of her story by simply stating to the audience that this “is what happened” (113). These short sentences add nothing to the plot but shape the authoritative tone of Mattie's narration, a style that reflects her assertive and unbridled personality.

“It was a good enough buy.”

As she describes her father’s death, Mattie takes a moment to justify her father’s business dealings. Notably, the dealings were “good enough” (116) rather than simply good. Mattie, her narration implies, would have done better. She cannot help but assert her personality and correct others, even when she is commenting on the final business deal of her father’s life.

“The wicked flee when none pursueth.”

Mattie is religious, both as a person and as a narrator. When she tells her story, she bolsters the narrative with selective quotes from the Bible. By referring to Proverbs and isolating this reference in a single sentence of its own, she gives her story a biblical precedence.