Ned Kelly: American Hero Or Villain

Ned Kelly was a bushranger and was born in June 1855 at Beveridge, Victoria. His father was John Kelly and his mother was Ellen Kelly. Ned became the father of his family at a very young age because of his fathers early death. In 1869 Ned was arrested for alleged assault on a Chinaman and held for ten days on remand but the charge was dismissed. Next year he was arrested and held in custody for seven weeks as a suspected accomplice of the bushranger, Harry Power, but again the charge was dismissed (V.Barry, 1974). Ned Kelly was born in a time where there is no word as justice for us poor people. The polices have the dirtiest mind and they don’t even see them as humanbeings. The police punish the poor people accuse them of bring thieves and punish them without even giving them a chance to defend themselves. He believed he became one of such victim at a very young age. When he was 15 a local policeman came to arrest his uncle wrongly accusing him of stealing a horse and therefore pleaded for his innocence and as a result of this making himself a target of the police for the rest of my life.

Ever since that day, the police had become shadow and they never really left me. At the age of 15 I was first sent to jail for three years being accused of stealing a horse which I knew nothing about. When I came back from jail I saw 31 of my 32 horses had been taken by a local police officer. This reflects the story of the police and the government basically. They are the biggest thieves themselves they find happiness in the sadness of innocent people. I was a man who looked for a way to stop this harsh injustice against such helpless and free them from jails. Me being a victim I had good reasons to do so. With the help of my friends, my family, my relatives and my stepfather I decided to teach this evil men a lesson somehow Focus I think Ned Kelly was a hero because he always had a belief that the social inequalities of his days should be righted. He became caught up in a series of events over which he had little control. Towards the end he was no longer just fighting for his beliefs, he was fighting for his life, and the lives of his friends. Up until his final moments he still firmly believed he had fought for a just cause. To me, his final words “Such is life” suggest that he had tried his hardest to live for and by his beliefs.

He died a man of honour, loyal to his friends, family and class. He died a spokesman for an entire generation of the oppressed. Ned Kelly was only seen as a villain by the upper classes. His sympathisers in the lower classes were treated very badly, being held for months on end without charges or trial. They weren’t allowed to take up land holdings in the region as an attempt to get them out of North-East Victoria. The police were trying to discourage support of Ned Kelly within the lower classes. Their efforts weren’t successful, as 30,000 Victorians signed a petition, sympathetic to Ned, to stop him from being hanged. Also, the majority of people receiving a share of the reward money for the capture of the Kelly Gang were either in the police force, employees of the railways, or native trackers hired by the police. During his short life, Kelly was a polarising figure, and remains one today – so much so that his family members have taken the precaution of burying him in an unmarked grave. Many view Kelly not so much as a folk hero but as a convicted murderer responsible for the death of three police officers.

They would see it as justice that his victims – police officers Michael Scanlan, Michael Kennedy and Thomas Lonigan – have prominent tombstones and a large memorial in the Victorian mountain town of Mansfield, while Kelly lies in an unmarked grave. An exploration of Kelly’s life, however, reveals some of the reasons why he became the quintessential Australian folk hero – a bush-loving rebel who stuck it to the authorities Conclusion: oppressors was proven correct and has had enough evidence to ensure it is correct and that there have even been different opinions and views on the sources to disagree with him and agree. Ned Kelly was found to have only done bad for the right reasons and not for the wrong.