How often do different people come together for the same cause? In quest stories, like True Grit by Charles Portis. The three main characters put their differences aside and band together for one cause: to get Tom Chaney, dead or alive. Mattie Ross, the hero, Rooster Cogburn, the wise old man, and LeBoeuf, the assistant guide, all constitute the essential characters of any good quest story. Mattie Ross is not a typical country girl, but rather a very typical quest type hero. . Like any other quest hero, she possesses the will to achieve her goal, the intelligence to accomplish it, and the reason to embark on such a dangerous quest. Mattie wants to avenge the death of her father, Franks Ross, after Chaney shot him in broad daylight, when he was just trying to help Chaney. When Frank tries to talk to him, “Tom Chaney raised his rifle and shot him in the forehead, killing him instantly” (10). Mattie is devastated by this news and sets out to find Tom Chaney and kill him herself, or watch him get killed. She goes to Fort Smith and begins asking for information about Frank Ross, her father. When Mattie is looking for deputy marshals for the job, she chooses Rooster Cogburn for the job, as she learns that he will be the one who will shoot Chaney on sight, not just try to talk. Another reason Mattie is the hero is because she doesn't give in when Rooster and LeBeouf tell her to cross the river, and they tell the smugglers, "Slim, take this girl into town and present her to the sheriff." She's a runaway. Her people worry almost to death about her. There is a reward of fifty dollars for his return” (136). LeBeouf is definitely telling a story about this, just to keep Mattie around, while he... middle of paper ...... far away, with his sharp rifle. Rooster is pinned under his fallen horse and Lucky is about to shoot him, but LeBeouf stops him dead in his tracks. Additionally, it is LeBeouf who pulls Mattie out of the hole, shouting, "'I'll try the horse'" (298). He ties one end of the rope to Little Blackie and throws the other end down, which finally brings Rooster and Mattie out of the hole. Thanks to his quick thinking, he saves the lives of Rooster and Mattie. If LeBeouf had not been present, the entire mission could have been threatened. How often do different people come together for the same cause? In Charles Portis' True Grit, LeBeouf, the assistant guide, Rooster Cogburn, the wise old man, and Mattie Ross, the hero, all constitute the essential characters in any intriguing quest story. The three main characters team up for a satisfying ending.