Saturday, September 18, 2010
Fatherhood
Carey seems to present a skewed idea of fatherhood throughout The True History of the Kelly Gang. We are not given much insight on Red Kelly, Ned's father, except that he is a raging, irresponsible alcoholic who enjoys dressing up in women's clothing and lives his life in constant fear of being sent to jail again. When Ned discovers his cross-dressing ways, he suddenly stops looking up to him and only resents him. Ned tells us how at one point in his life, he yearned to imitate his father exactly and followed him everywhere he went. This gives us the impression that his father had a significant influence on his upbringing, yet following his discovery of his father's secrets, all feelings of affection seem to have disappeared. After he has basically cut off all emotional ties to his father, I was left wondering whether or not he valued fatherhood at all. After much pondering, I have come to the conclusion that his shame and embarrassment concerning Red's failure as a father gave him strong motivation to replace Red as his siblings' father figure. Ned spends the rest of the novel constantly trying to fulfill Red's vacancy as 'man of the house.' Ned takes on all of the work and even considers himself to be the deciding factor on his mother and older sister Annie's suitors. Following this, he even goes so far as to behave as if he is his mother's life-partner and his siblings' father-- "I loved her [baby Grace] as if she were my very own" (27). In conclusion, it appears as if Ned is aware of the negative impact his father's failure has had on him, and instead of belittling the importance of fatherhood, he seems to want to do everything in his power to ensure that his siblings' lives are not as negatively affected by Red's failures as his was.
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I certainly agree with you that Red Kelly was clearly not an ideal father figure. However, I would like to propose that Ned Kelly's relationship with his dad is as "simple" as you propose it to be. Though the Ned's discovery of his father's dress certainly affected his view and respect of his dad, I believe the incident of Red Kelly's arrest for killing Mr. Murray's cow sheds further light on the complexity of Ned's relationship with his dad.
ReplyDeleteWhen Red Kelly found out that his son had killed Mr. Murray's cow, he punished/whipped Ned for doing so, evidently showing his displeasure in his son's actions. He then went in the night, skinned the cow, burned the head, and cut out the MM brand to erase any evidence of his son's deeds. (23) When the constable was in the process of arresting Red, Red said, "I can't bear prison." Right after this statement, Ned immediately burst out saying that he was the one who did the crime. It's interesting to note that Ned's admission seems to be a reaction of his father's "fear" of prison. I believe that a sense of both guilt of his own actions and pity towards his father drove him to make that admission. Even then, his father told him to be quiet and go to school, serving the punishment Ned was supposed to deserve. This certainly shows some emotional feelings toward his dad. Furthermore, Ned writes these words after his father died, "Were this not he who give me life all dead and ruined. Father son of my heart are you dead from me are you dead from me my father?" He then writes how whatever he did, he felt his father watching him to make sure he did it right. (39) Ned certainly realized his father's "love" towards him that caused him to be put in prison, a place he feared most, for his son's actions. Ned also seems to realize that his father's death is somewhat significant and that the man who gave him life was dead. He still respected his dad and acknowledged that all the skills he knew were derived by his father. Thus, I would like to propose that Ned still respects his dad instead of "only resenting him." He respects Red purely because he (Red) is his (Ned) father. He honors him for that fact. I am certainly sure that Red's imprisonment reversed some effects that Ned's discovery of the dress had made.