Hero's Journeyv

A Hero's Journey: Rooster Cogburn in True Grit

The three central characters in the film True Grit are Rooster Cogburn, a rough U.S. marshal, Mattie Ross, a girl who plans to bring her father's killer, Tom Cheney, to justice, and LaBoeuf, a Texas Ranger who wants to capture Cheney for his own reasons. The story follows a pattern of narrative identified by Joseph Campbell. It is an adventure story that has the same structure as other classic adventure stories that we see in drama and myth.

At the beginning, we see Rooster Cogburn in his ordinary world. It is the first stage in the hero's journey. Rooster is asleep after a night of drinking. Mattie finds him and wakes him. In his ordinary world, Rooster Cogburn was drunk, dirty and mean. He liked to be by himself. He did not care about anyone. He did not care about...
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