True Grit

Like guns, horses are an essential part of American life at the end of the 19th century. Even as trains become more commonplace and industrial machines threaten to replace old methods, horses are still an essential part of life on the frontier, where modernity is only just becoming a concern. Horses are a last vestige of this old way of life, soon to be replaced by automobiles and other machines. For those in Fort Smith and similar towns, however, horses represent much more. For the Ross family, horses still represent an economic opportunity. Frank travels to Fort Smith with Tom Chaney because he sees an opportunity to purchase ponies. He can breed these ponies, he feels, and earn some money for his family. Yet Chaney shoots Frank and steals his horse. In the aftermath of Frank’s death, the Ross family faces a chasm in their finances. The horses are a burden, a physical embodiment of the loss of the family patriarch. The loss of Judy and the saddle is a financial loss imposed upon them by the criminal Tom Chaney, but the ponies are a more pressing issue. Without Frank, the Ross family has no means of turning these ponies into profit. The ponies have become a financial burden to them, a second death nearly dealt to the family by Chaney.

This is why Mattie’s arrival in Fort Smith shows her significance to the family moving forward. Frank may be gone, and Mattie may only be 14 years old, but she has taken the responsibility for the family upon her shoulders. She shows her willingness to bear this burden by dealing with the sale of the ponies. She sells them back to Stonehill against his wishes. The manner in which Mattie sells the ponies shows the extent to which she is willing to think in terms of commodities. These are not animals to her but the finances of the family in physical form. She is as forceful and as determined with Stonehill as she needs to be. She does not only succeed in selling the ponies back to Stonehill at a small loss, but she also secures payment for Judy and the saddle, helping to fill a hole in her family’s finances, which the loss of a good horse represents. 

Mattie speaks about horses with authority. She boldly claims that Judy was a fine horse, managing to negotiate a good price for a horse which—to all intents and purposes—has vanished alongside Chaney. She has little in the way of bargaining chips, yet Mattie manages to secure a good price for the horses. Her success in horse trading symbolizes the forthrightness of her character, while the way in which she manages to sell the ponies back to Stonehill represents the way in which she astounds those around her with her refusal to conform to social expectations. The horses become a means by which Mattie can express her frankness and her precociousness.

Mattie shows her maturity in dealing with the ponies, yet she remains only 14 years old. Mattie tries hard to assure the world around her that she is strong and commanding, but her youthful naivety is glimpsed occasionally. She picks out a horse and names it Little Blackie. Whereas older, rougher men like Rooster do not name their horses, Mattie cannot help but engage in a flourish of romanticism. To her, Blackie is a fine and wonderful horse. To Rooster, horses are machines made of flesh. Her innocence and youth show through in the way in which she bonds with her horse. Mattie is proved somewhat right: Blackie the horse serves her well throughout the pursuit, never faltering on the long hard ride which Rooster demands of her. Mattie may be naïve in her attitude toward the horse, finding a love for the creature that her fellow riders do not. Yet this love is repaid when Blackie plays a vital role in lifting her from the snake pit. Blackie is as important to her survival as Rooster or LaBoeuf. As he rushes her back to medical care, however, Rooster rides Blackie to the point of death. He whips the horse, stabs the horse, and then rubs salt in the horse’s wound. Symbolically, he is driving the innocence and romanticism from Mattie’s life. Mattie lives, but the person who emerges is severely changed and chastened by her experience. She has not only lost her arm but also her youthful innocence. The loss of Blackie is the loss of Mattie’s childhood.