A genre is a category in an art form that is characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. In this case our art form is literature, the novel "True Grit". This novel can certainly fall in the western genre. It has a revenge plot in which Mattie tracks down her father's killer, Chaney.  It also has showdowns between the good and the bad, just like the movies. I felt as if I was reading a spaghetti western, minus the cheapness of one. What I mean is that it had something more meaningful behind the basic story, a strong meaning instead of pure entertainment. It's almost as if it had a secondary hidden genre behind the western disguise it makes itself out to be. The hidden genre could be a "Coming of Age" story where the protagonist grows from childhood to adulthood. I don't mean literally when we fast-forward to the future of her life, but instead when she matures. At the climax of the novel, when the girl falls into the snake pit; Mattie faces a life or death situation. The problem becomes more of her struggling to survive rather than revenge. She loses two things after that incident: her arm and her innocence.