Ned and his siblings often hear late night intimate conversations that Ellen Kelly and her men have. They are also exposed to views of strange men in her bed. This affect on Ned even causes him to go as far as to describe to his daughter an intimate tale of himself and her mother:.
"Then we was playing what they call THE GAME you never knew so.
many hooks and buttons and sweet smelling things we took them off her.
one by one until she lay across her bed there were no sin for so did God.
make her skin so white her hair as black as night her eyes green and her .
lips smiling. She were a teacher with a mighty vocation pulling and drag-.
ging when I took her she were slender and strong as a deer her breasts.
small but very full. . ." (Carey 202).
Whether Ned intentionally takes an interest in these relations or not, he is definitely exposed and effected by the intimate relations of his mother and fulfills the first criteria of the oedipal complex.
Ned continuously challenges himself to be the man of the family and prove his strength. These are definitely good intentions but where do they come from? The oedipal complex also stems from the son striving to prove he is stronger and more attractive than his father (Human Behavior 896). "So you can see I had become a very serious boy it were my job to replace the father as it were my fault we didn't have him anymore" (Carey 39). It is explicitly clear from this quote that Ned sees a need to replace his father. The fact that his father is gone and that he is responsible only augments the situation. Ned is even more prone to a complex because of this. Ned not only tries to prove his masculinity to his family but also to others outside the family. He often tangles with Harry Power because Ned refuses to take a submissive role in his life. Harry tries to enforce power over Ned and Ned is discontent with the situation. This is the reason that Ned fights with Harry Power's friend.