Poor Poor Ned

Mary asks Ned to write everything down so that his daughter will have a true account of the events. Mary decides to go to San Francisco as she will not be safe until she leaves the country. Ned and Dan break into various banks and steal the gold. They spend some of the money they have robbed helping out various neighbors. The closing pages of the narrative are filled with newspaper accounts of their exploits and robberies. They break into a police station and steal money. They even dress up as policemen at one stage. Ned tries to force the editor of the local newspaper to print the truth about the full story of his mother’s imprisonment but this backfires. Meanwhile Ned receives a letter from Mary who is now in San Francisco announcing the birth of a daughter. The last section takes place in a pub run by a Mrs. Jones. The schoolteacher Curnow warns people on a train about the Kelly’s and as a result thirty men and twenty horses are saved. There is a shoot out and for a day and a night the shanty is like a fortress. Ned is wounded and his only thoughts are to see his daughter and to free his mother. Dan is shot and dies. Thomas Curnow is given police protection and believes he is a hero because of his action. Ned is condemned to death and his hangman is a seventy-year-old man called Upjohn. He is lead out with prayers proper to the Catholic Church. He is hanged publicly. He had requested two favors that his mother be released from Melbourne Gaol and that his body be buried in consecrated ground. Neither of these requests are granted.
Wow, that must have stunk to have asked for some favors and think they will be fulfilled but then never are. Basically what I am going to tell you about, now that I have finished the book, is the themes, hero, and villain. One theme is violence. There are many graphic descriptions of violence in the Kelly family for savage brutality. Much of this violence is shown in their various attacks on the police force. We witness how Ned’s mother launch into a brutal attack on Fitzpatrick a corrupt policeman. Another theme is corruption. It becomes evident as the story unfolds that there are many corrupt elements inherent in the police force. Some of the members of the police force operate in a corrupt manner and have no hesitation about using forceful methods such as bribery and intimidation to gain their means. Fitzpatrick is an example of a man who will use other people to serve his own corrupt ends. When Ned is outlawed Fitzpatrick threatens Ned’s sister and bullies her into exposing where Ned is hidden. Carey seems to be intent in showing through his story that in many ways the Kelly gang were victims of an unjust and corrupt society. The hero of the story is definitely Ned Kelly. He is seen as a courageous figure a victim of tragic and unfortunate circumstances. The police are shown to be the main villains in this story. Fitzpatrick a police officer is a main villain given that he betrays Mary by getting her pregnant and yet has many different affairs on the side.