Wednesday, September 29, 2010
"the passing of the torch..."
throughout the story there seemed to be this parallel of sorts not only between Ned and Harry Powers, but also between Mary Hearn and Ned's mother. the similarities between Ned and Harry Powers has been previously discussed in class on several occasions pertaining to whether or not one views Ned as a hero or villain. i dont want to go back into the particulars as to whether or not he is or isn't a villain/ hero, but rather focus on the comparisons of Ned's and Mary's relationship relative to that of Harry Powers and his mother. the first two people i want to focus on is Ned's mother and Mary. Although Ned thinks highly of his mother, it is known that she is basically prostituting herself and running an illegal alcohol business out of her home in order to provide for her children. although some may say that she was simply doing what she had to do, it is still, in my opinion, indicative of a not so respectable woman. when Ned is first introduced to Mary by Fitzpatrick in the story, he brings her a dress, which she gladly takes, and later on we see that her and Ned end up having sex. something that immediately comes to mind as a parallel is when Harry Powers would bring Ned's mother dresses and other gifts, which would then be followed by sex, as evidenced by Ned remarking of seeing "a mans feet sticking out from under the covers" when he awoke the next morning. it also comes out later in the story that Mary Hearn not only has a child, but the child's father is a married man, which she knew all along. this speaks volumes of her character in my opinion and her and Ned's mother can clearly be placed into the same category. also there seems to be comparison made by Ned about he & Harry Potters prices on their heads. Ned almost seems to brag about the fact that there was only a 500lb pricetag on the head of Harry Powers, while he himself had a pricetag of 800lbs. (pg.286) this seems to signify the "passing of the torch" from harry to Ned, as if to imply that because there is a higher price tag on his head, that he has surpassed Harry's previous notoriety. one simple aspect that i wanted to address is the general shift in the story. once, Ned's mother and Harry are both imprisoned, we never really focus on them anymore except for the occasional mention that Ned makes of wanting to get her out. the rest of the story seems to focus on the relationship of Mary and Ned. because of the previously mentioned similarities between the four characters, this is why i feel that Ned's mother has been replaced by Mary and Ned himself has taken the place of Harry Powers. another reason that Mary has surpassed Ned's mother is because she manages to overcome her enviroment and make it to america where we are led to believe that she is doing fine. this is in direct comparision to Ned's mother who never makes it out her impoverished circumstances. although i say "passing of the torch" im not implying any continuence of sorts, because we learn that Ned is killed in the end, which is certainly not something that is to be esteemed, but the fact that he achieved and even surpassed the infamy of the once acclaimed bush ranger Harry Powers, shows that Harry is old news and Ned is what "hot" so to speak.
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