Philip Tang

True or Untrue, Grit – Extended Analysis

True or Untrue, Grit, a story in the compilation called Rancho Weirdo by Laura

Chester is just as one would imagine it to be, judging from the book from where it

originates – weird. But beyond that superficial observation, the story’s development

unfolds on some meaningful topics, including the treatment of Native Americans and

American ignorance towards their disposition.

The story begins with the main character, a woman, and her husband “spending

[their] first night in [their] new winter home”. This statement alone would immediately

imply that they are rich and can afford such an unnecessary luxury. And yet, the next

part of the first sentence contradicts this by saying there are electrical and plumbing

difficulties. Rich or not, the setting has been established, and with a mountain “[they]

had never noticed” in the daylight, it is an eerie one indeed.

The next major event occurs when the woman feels a “woooosh” of energy fly

past her. And so begins the first example of American ignorance. To rationalize this

otherwise inexplicable event, the woman tries to tell herself that it was a coatimundi

responsible for it. A coatimundi is an animal that she had never seen before, but only

heard of from various stories she had been told. The whole fiasco demonstrates that she

is wholly incapable of coming to her own conclusions, and must draw from the

conclusions of others in order to form a reasonable explanation.

The theme of ignorance continues as the woman recounts that her elderly

neighbor had warned her not to build a house there, on a “Native American holy spot”.

Despite this warning, the woman found that all the more appealing. Despite knowing she
would do so, she voluntarily decided to desecrate the lands of another culture for her own

self gratification. The plight of the Native Americans was fully ignored.

Soon enough, her husband leaves to return to New York, affirming that they are

both Americans, and she is left in an isolated scenario. And so, Nora, as she reveals her

name to be, encounters a Native American she comes to name Grit. She makes no effort

to rationalize his appearance, despite the fact that to be here, he would have had to over

the “eight foot walls”. This is most likely because, unlike the wooooshing incident where

coatimundi stories were fresh in her mind, she had no second hand accounts to draw from

to explain this, thus emphasizing American intellect as a whole to be weak and shallow,

at least when it comes to matters regarding Native Americans.

When Nora claimed that she had bought the land from the “Indians”, Grit

responds with a simple “Ugh”. As simple as it might sound, the answer has a dual

layered meaning. For one, it is the literal spelling of the sound one makes when trying to

express understanding in the most reluctant way possible. On the other hand, it expresses

his disgust towards Nora and white people, for her ignorant use of the word Indian when

in reality he was a Native American, and moreso an Apache. Also, the land was never

actually put up for sale. More like it was stolen and then put up for real estate. Grit

claims the land to be “his place”, but Nora denies him completely. She believes that “no

one really owns [the land]”, even though she also claims to know “about Indians and their

sacred land”. The contradiction is apparent. She knows nothing of their land, because if

she did, she would respect the fact that Grit and his people were the original inhabitants,

thus the land belonged to them. For her to encroach on the land and build a house,
without even paying the right people (the Native Americans), is an atrocious act of

disrespect that she cannot come to even realize due to her ignorance.

After Grit suddenly disappears, Nora digresses to recall her that her neighbor once

told her that the land she built the house on was called “Manzano, Spanish for apple”.

The Apache natives often raided the land for its orchards, and knowing this she decided

to name her property Manzano because she “liked the sound of [it] so much”. Here, she

Chester again displays Nora’s ignorance, but in a more innocent fashion. Naming the

house Manzano is disrespectful in the fact that it is somewhat provoking to the Natives,

as if to call them out and challenge them to try and raid this property, that had once

belonged to them. On the other hand, Nora was trying a little bit to respect Native culture

and name her house after something she found interesting. In the end, her ignorance is

still showing.

Again, Nora, representing the collective mind of American thought towards

Native American culture, cannot think on her own or stand on her own two feet mentally

and resorts to calling her husband to attain a sense of safety after the incident with Grit.

In the end, she resorted to calling her contractor to bring over a dog that would allow her

to feel comfortable. Her inability to feel comfortably safe by herself is parallel to the

idea that Americans cannot form their own personal opinions and instead rely on second

hand accounts to form their thoughts, such as unreliable stories about the Natives.

The return of Grit was marked with a peculiar statement. He called himself “Cool

Hand John Fucking Wayne”, in mockery of western rappers and artists that have become

stereotypical of American culture. This rather hostile exchange signified that the Natives

are not content with how they are treated and completely resent the white people for their
insensitive actions. The fact that Grit wanted to drink from a gas can rather than any sort

of normal beverage is a metaphorical comparison to how the Americans’ insensitive

behavior continues to fuel the fiery rage within Native spirits.

At Grit’s request, the two began climbing to the top of Perfect Mountain, the

mountain outside of the house. Grit claimed that “many Indian disturbed by planting of

house” and confirmed that the house was sitting on a holy burial ground. This simple

revelation startled Nora, and once again, her ignorance was accompanied by her

weakness, as she depended on the dog Rex to continue hauling her “up the hill until the

collar on his neck seemed to almost choke.” Clearly, she felt guilty at least a little, but

being weak minded and incapable of independent thought like Chester claims so many

Americans to be towards Native Americans, she was unable to express any kind of

apologetic remark.

Grit later says that “You can not flush toilet at base of Sacred Mountain” in

response to hearing a toilet flush running along the side of the mountain. Grit was so

opposed to toilets because the fact that sewer pipes are running along holy burial grounds

is synonymous to the fact that Americans are defecating all over Native American

ancestors, Native American history, and Native American memory. Such a thing is easily

intolerable.

Upon hearing this, it hardly affected Nora. The news that the house was

complete, however, gravely affected her. She did not want it to be over, most likely

because her contact with the contractor would now come to an end – the person she was

likely having an affair with. Nevertheless she was made an offer to purchase the house.

Surprisingly, she was not so against it, claiming that “now that the creative process was
over, I could imagine getting rid of it.” The line of thinking could easily be applied to the

creation of a story or book as well.

Just as these events were transpiring, a rather surprising twist occurs where the

setting distorts and the narrator is returned to reality, where she is waiting for the

everyday train at the rundown station. What could all this mean? One explanation could

be that the narrator is the writer herself, Laura Chester, and this was one of her

experiences as she waited for the train. She dozed off from boredom, and the creative

mind of a writer caused her to dream about an outlandish scenario that ended up

depicting American regard for Native Americans. On the other hand, it could also simply

be Nora, a representation of American thought, and how many an American is easily as

greedy as her, willing to steal land to build a house that she doesn’t even want to keep.

Intentional or not, the story overall depicts Americans as naïve, ignorant, and

uninformed, while emphasizing Native Americans as the victims, the suffering, and

deserving in every right to harbor feelings of resentment towards their suppressors.