Peter Carey writes the “True History of the Kelly Gang” in first person, from the point of view of Ned Kelly. It is written as if Ned Kelly is telling the story of his life. Peter Carey also makes it though we are seeing Ned Kelly’s life through his eyes. Peter Carey writes the novel in first person to give the impression that it is an authentic account of Ned Kelly’s life from his own point of view. Even though Peter Carey may have injected his own perceptions and views and manipulated the character of Ned Kelly to suit his purpose in the novel, these actions may seem less obvious because we are seeing the events of Ned Kelly’s life though his own eyes. This comes back to Peter Carey’s objective of making the book seem authentic.
Ned Kelly wrote the Jerilderie Letter to show and tell everyone what sort of character he actually is and to justify his actions through it. Peter Carey has very carefully studied the character of Ned Kelly in the Jerilderie Letter. The Ned Kelly we read of in “The True History of the Kelly Gang” is much like the one in the Jerilderie Letter. Ned Kelly speaks in a passionate tone: it is of a man who has been treated unfairly and is seeking justice. Peter Carey uses the Jerilderie Letter to grasp the voice of Ned Kelly. By making the character of Ned Kelly in “The True History of the Kelly Gang” much like the one in the Jerilderie Letter, Peter Carey is making his character of Ned Kelly as accurate as possible and also adds to the authenticity of the novel. This comes back to Peter Carey’s attempt to make the novel seem like it an authentic, first-hand account of Ned Kelly.
‘The True History of the Kelly Gang” begins with a newspaper article about the fall of Ned Kelly and how he was captured and ends with an newspaper article about the trail of Ned Kelly’s and his execution. Both articles are made to look like genuine articles written by the newspapers. In reality, these articles were created by Peter Carey to make his story of Ned Kelly seem like an actual account of his life. Peter Carey’s strategy is to make people think that if the beginning of the novel was real, and the end was real as well, then people would assume that the middle part would also be real. The use of the two articles was to manipulate the readers into thinking that his story is a true account of Ned Kelly as written by himself.Peter Carey further adds to the authenticity of the novel by saying that after Ned Kelly was arrested, the police discovered 13 parcels, all of which were written by Ned Kelly. This is an introduction to the novel, but more so, Peter Carey is saying to us that what we are going to read was written by Ned Kelly.
The novel is made of thirteen parcels; each parcel is an account of a significant period or event of Ned Kelly’s life. At the start of each parcel is a detailed description of where the parcel was discovered, the condition of the parcel, the size of each parcel, and the type of paper the letters were written on. In actual fact, none of these parcels exist. Peter Carey creates these parcels to attempt to increase the authenticity of the novel as the true account of Ned Kelly’s life. It is a lot easier for people to believe in tangible history than to intangible history. An example of this is that it would be a lot easier for a person to believe in the existence of dinosaurs because of the discoveries of skeletons, but many find it hard to believe in the existence of God because s/he is intangible, therefore, it makes it seem as if s/he is not true and does not exist. Peter Carey exploits this quality of the human mind to make the reader feel that the novel is an authentic account of Ned Kelly’s life as written by himself.
He further adds to the authenticity of the novel by modifying the qualities of each parcel. He changes the condition of each parcel, the type of paper used, where the paper was taken from, and so on. All this is done to make us think that these parcels actually do exist. The parcels also add to the effect of the book, we can see that during the turbulent times of Ned Kelly’s life, the condition of the parcel deteriorates and the amount of pages the parcel contains decreases. This suggests that during these times, Ned Kelly has less time to write these letters and/or is not as careful with looking after them.
Peter Carey names his novel “The True History of the Kelly Gang” to make it seem authentic, as if it was written by Ned Kelly himself. Just the title itself suggests that the novel is authentic. To make the novel appear like it was written by Ned Kelly, Peter Carey writes the novel in first person, as if Ned Kelly is telling the story and that we are seeing things from his point of view. Peter Carey borrows the tone and passion of Ned Kelly in the Jerilderie Letter and imposes these qualities of Ned Kelly into his character of him. This is done so that the reader will feel the same emotion and passion Ned Kelly showed in the Jerilderie Letter. To further make his novel seem like an authentic account of Ned Kelly himself, Peter Carey creates two newspaper accounts of Ned Kelly, one strategically placed at the start of the novel, and the other placed at the end. This is done so that it makes the reader think that if the beginning is true, and the end is true, then everything in between must also be true. Peter Carey’s last technique in making the novel seem like ‘True History’ is that he has included thirteen parcels in the novel. These parcels do not exist, but are said to be left behind by Ned Kelly. Peter Carey makes it as if the novel is a compilation of Ned Kelly’s letters, therefore, makes the reader think that it is Ned Kelly who wrote the novel, and that Peter Carey is only the one to publish it.