Ned Kelly is unbelievably naïve and lacks the ability to empathize with a situation that isn’t his own. This fact is made rather clear as we see the decisions he makes. During his imprisonment, he refuses to believe the young officer when he tells Kelly about the police’s habit of mistreating people after they have served their purpose. I’m not sure why he wouldn’t believe the man, especially considering what he had seen of the police earlier in the book. All clues suggested that the police where selfish and corrupt especially the way they had treated Ned’s family. They had been going to his mother every morning to find Ned and Harry, with no regard for her family or its wishes.
After he gets out of prison he seems surprised by his aunt’s betrayal, and can’t seem to understand why someone would sell out their family for 500 pounds. Allow me to repeat: he doesn’t understand why a few poor people would betray the family’s moral code for 500 pounds (a huge sum for the time) when they know they won’t get caught. This begins to explain Ned’s development into whatever he becomes in the later pages of the book. He begins to fit that cast of a person who is legally a criminal, yet has his own peculiar moral code that dictates what crimes he commits (see: Mel Gibson in the Mad Max series). His aunt blames Harry’s capture on Ned, which ruins his relations with his family at first, but then just his extended family.
He gets a job with the police because no one in the area would hire a traitor, and during this job he gets taunted as well as threatened by the Quinns who the constable offers to throw in jail if Ned can bring them back to the police station. During the trial to determine the Quinn’s sentence, Ned tries to foolishly reveal the constable’s plan to imprison these two men, and the judge will have none of it. For some reason young Ned thought his pubescent word would carry weight in a British court against a British employee. Instead he loses face with both his family (for getting the Quinns in trouble) and his tentative alliance with the police is destroyed. Prison time follows, and hopefully his ridiculous time in prison will lead to some maturation.
Naive? Yes. I think Ned is very naive and inexperienced. I wouldn't necessarily consider him a fool, though. Unless trusting people and giving them the benefit of the doubt makes you a fool....then I must admit that I too fall into this category.
ReplyDeleteNed seems to want to see the good in everyone he encounters, but I don't think this makes him a fool. I think that trait makes him brave than the majority of people. Who wants o take a risk on every person they meet. How many people have to courage to get past what other people say about someone and make a decision for themselves? Ned does, and I don't think that makes him a fool at all.