True History of the Kelly Gang

1. In Australia, Ned Kelly is a national icon. When he was sentenced to death in 1880, 60,000 people signed a petition asking that he be spared; his image was placed on center stage during the opening ceremonies of the Summer 2000 Olympic Games; he has been the subject of numerous books, articles, films, and works of art; and he occupies a place in the Australian popular imagination that is unrivaled by any political figure. Though his legacy is still controversial and some regard him as a criminal and murderer, he is widely seen as a champion of the oppressed and a forerunner of Australian nationalism. Peter Carey himself has likened Ned Kelly to Thomas Jefferson. What aspects of Kelly's character and actions might be responsible for his heroic status? What heroic feats does he accomplish in the novel? In what ways does the novel present a realistic rather than mythic or romanticized portrait of the man? 2. TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG is a novel and therefore a fiction. And yet, as the title suggests, it also claims to be a 'true history,' and Peter Carey did extensive research on Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang. Most of the characters in the novel did exist as real people and many of the events are based on historical fact. What are the complications involved in using fiction to tell the truth? Can a factually based imaginative reconstruction present a truer or more accurate account of people and events than straightforward nonfiction? What distinctive pleasures does the historical novel afford? 3. Ned Kelly begins by writing that his history 'will contain no single lie may I burn in hell if I speak false' (p. 7), and much in his narration is concerned with setting the record straight. Is Kelly a reliable narrator? Why should his history be more 'true' than other versions of these events? What aspects of Kelly's voice and character convey a the feel of authenticity? 4. Why does Ned Kelly address his history to his daughter? What effect does he hope it will have on her? What are his motives for writing? 5. Throughout the novel, Ned Kelly represents himself as someone who was pushed into the life of an outlaw by forces beyond his control. 'What choice did I have?' he asks, when he kills Strahan at Stringybark Creek. 'This were the ripe fruit of Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick' (p. 239). What are the forces, individual and political, that determine his fate? In what ways is Fitzpatrick responsible for this killing? 6. What effect does Harry Power have on the young Ned Kelly? What does Ned learn from him? In what ways does Ned define himself against Harry Power? 7. Looking back on the moment when Harry Power told him that he had killed Bill Frost, Ned thinks: 'Now it is many years later I feel great pity for the boy who so readily believed this barefaced lie I stand above him and gaze down like the dead look down from Heaven' (p. 118). Where else in the novel is Ned betrayed by the dishonesty of others? What does his willingness to trust suggest about his character? Why would he liken this recollection to the dead looking down from Heaven? 8. How are the Irish in general, and the Kelly family in particular, regarded by the English in Australia? What methods do the police use to intimidate and control them? In what ways can the novel be read as an indictment of English colonialism? 9. When Tom Lloyd is arrested for the shooting of Bill Frost, Ned returns because, as he tells his mother, 'I can't let Tom Lloyd do my time' (p. 134). By what ethical code does Ned live? Where else does he refuse to violate this personal code of honor? How are his own ethics contrasted with those of the police, squatters, and judges who are arrayed against him? What are the consequences of Kelly's strict adherence to his code? 10. TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG is a much as his family and his friends as it is about Ned Kelly. What do Ned's relationships with Joe Byrne, his mother, his brother Dan, his wife Mary and their child reveal about the kind of man he is? Why is it impossible for him to flee with Mary to America? How has his relationship with his father, and his father's history, shaped him? 11. Ned Kelly claims that his gang had 'showed the world what convict blood could do. We proved there was no taint we was of true bone blood and beauty born' (p. 323). And when he is making the iron masks he hopes will save then, he writes: 'The British Empire has steam & factories & thousands come to toil each day carrying out its orders it cannot imagine what we colonials have in store' (p. 327). To what extent is Ned Kelly aware of himself as an actor on the historical stage? To what extent should he be regarded as a revolutionary? What events lead to his growing political consciousness? 12. Though possessing little formal education, Ned Kelly was in fact a remarkable writer, as evidenced by the 1879 Jerilderie letter, which Kelly dictated to Joe Byrne and which survives today. What aspects of Kelly's writing, as Carey represents it, seem most distinctive? How is his writing regarded by others in the novel? What does he hope his writing--in the letter to Mr. Cameron and in the pamphlet he tries to publish--will accomplish? In what ways does Peter Carey's novel fulfill this hope? 13. TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG is preceded by an epigraph from William Faulkner: 'The past is not dead. It is not even past.' How does this quote illuminate what happens in the novel? In what sense do both English colonial history and Ned Kelly's personal past affect the events in the novel? What does this epigraph, and the novel itself, imply about similar contemporary conflicts in Ireland and elsewhere? 14. After his capture in 1880, Ned Kelly said 'If my lips teach the public that men are made mad by bad treatment, and if the police are taught that they may exasperate to madness men they persecute and ill treat, my life will not be entirely thrown away.' In what ways does Kelly's life, as it is presented in TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG, serve as a warning about the