Ned Kelly is their Andrew Jackson

Bear with me, but this post is in defense of my belief that every hero is also a villain. I think it helps us try to analyze whether or not Ned Kelly is a hero by putting him into American terms that we are familiar with. This way the whole 'culture' difference is rendered a non issue. I found that the American Ned Kelly was most similar too was Andrew Jackson.

There are some pretty strong parallels between Ned Kelly and Jackson. Both are considered to have had strong morals and were fiercely stubborn about living up to their own moral codes.

The parallels begin in the fact both Ned and Jackson are considered patriots against colonial rule. For Ned, he is fighting British Protestant oppression upon Catholic Irish. He and Powers steal from the rich and Ned later kills policemen. For Jackson, he was a patriot during the Revolution fighting against British oppression. During the war Jackson is captured and ordered by a British officer to clean his boots. Jackson refused and received a scar on his head from the officer's sword.

The parallels continue with both Characters' love for family:
For Jackson, he loved his family and America more than anything and would never compromise either of the two. He was considered a 'gentleman' by the ladies, but was notorious for being an overall badass and always fighting for what he believed in - even if that meant risking his own life. Similarly, Ned Kelly spends the entire book striving to maintain his family's honor and resisting colonial rule and is ready to fight to defend his values at any moment. For example, when Ned's father is insulted for wearing the dress, Ned immediately picks a fight to send the message such talk will not be tolerated. Also, anytime anyone of his sisters or mother are double crossed by men, Ned Kelly sends a similar message to them...for Bill Frost it just happened to be a bullet. Jackson also happened to be overly sensitive about a woman in his life, but in his case it was his wife. Jackson pretty much married a woman while she was still married to another man, and so he constantly was hated on by other politicians and nobles. This drove him INSANE, especially when people insulted his wife directly. Jackson was so serious about upholding the honor of his wife he tried to kill the people who insulted her. It is important to note that duels back then were considered "affairs of honor". One duel left him with a bullet permanently lodged in his body. From then on, Jackson's reputation would preceded him. Similar to Ned Kelly and Harry Power.

Jackson never really had a family besides his wife, as he was born poor but raised by rich relatives. He never really fit in and got a lot of crap from people for being an outsider. For him, America was his family. Jackson was so devout in his love for America that he threatened to declare war on South Carolina and kill everyone in the State Govt in they ever succeeded. His passion and willingness to fight to the death for his 'family' kept the union together until Lincoln.

There are many more similarities between the two characters but I don't feel like giving a history lecture. The important thing to note is that both men were headstrong, passionate about similar morals, and quick to fight to defend said morals. It is in my opinion that the two are so close it may be easier to define Jackson as a hero/villain instead of Ned. This is where it gets tricky, because although I love Jackson I still can not decide if I think he is a true and total hero. This is why it is important to realize that hero's are also villains. Although Jackson did really great things for America and his family, he often did them in very immoral ways. Returning honor to his wife is a great story, but doing it by dueling and fighting everyone who insults her is not exactly taking the moral high ground. Moreover, Jackson preserves the Union on multiple occasions by either threatening people or actually killing them (reference Jackson's kinda-sort but not really authorized attack on the Seminoles and Spanish in Florida, and his threats to South Carolina). It becomes difficult to declare someone a hero by performing noble actions through dark methods. For me, I have settled around the middle....Jackson is a hero for the great things he did for America, and because he stuck to his beliefs and morals in order to pursue what he thought was right. However, he is also a villain for the amount of blood he shed. He is a villain to the families of the lives he took. He is a villain to the American political system for bending the rules. Jackson is both in one, and depending on the issue he floats between the two titles. For Jackson, when stuff needed to get done, he did it, while knowing sometimes you gotta break eggs to make an omelet - to me, there is something noble in that, and that is why I choose to lean towards both men's heroism.