Ned kept traveling on. He kept going on even though he was with the person who shot him in the leg. He didn’t even have an ounce of worry because he trusted her. He needed to get back to his village and she helped him. This is a poetic adaptation of Ned, the protagonist from The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill, trusting Aine just after she shot his leg. In this great book of fantasy fiction, Ned trusts a stranger to help him even though the stranger shot him and even develops a close friendship. In The Witch’s Boy by Kelly Barnhill, you learn sometimes you need to trust people even if it’s yourself.

Ned tries to not rely on the magic in him but to trust in himself. An example of this is when the Magic in Ned wants to get away from the Stones, but Ned doesn’t want to because he thinks the Stones will help. On page 12 author Kelly Barnhill uses personification in the text when saying, “If she had eyes, she would have opened them.” This shows that author Kelly Barnhill made the stone have a personality. Then Ned and the Magic have a silent fight of wills because they disagree about the stones. Ned wins the fight after he firmly wills the Magic to stop. Another example is when Ned got hurt with Aine’s arrow and the Magic tried to make Ned heal the wound with the Magic in him. Ned said he wouldn’t use the magic. I think another reason he said that he didn’t want the Magic to heal him was because that healing the wound with magic would make him rely on the Magic, not himself. The only reason why Ned was the boss of the Magic was because he believed in himself not the magic. That means everyone should believe in themselves to get things done and not take the quick but bad way instead do the good and long way.

Ned has trouble speaking but he eventually starts to speak well when he needs to because those are the times that he believes in himself. For example, when Tam is going to leave Ned’s body with the help of the stones, they speak together. Ned and his brother Tam build a raft and go down to a river. The raft sinks and the father has to choose one of them to save. He saves Ned but Ned gets sick. To save Ned, his mother(aka Sister Witch) who is a witch, sews Tam’s soul into Ned to make him survive but Tam’s soul interferes with Ned’s abilities to read and write. This is important because when Tam leaves Ned’s body, Ned can speak perfectly. But before that happens, Ned could only speak with Tam together without interference. On page 309, author Kelly Barnhill uses formal and forceful language when Ned speaks with Tam together. “THAT I HUMBLY ASK YOUR ASSISTANCE.” When Ned and Tam say that it changes the mood from the sadness of Tam passing on to a forceful mood. This means that speaking was very hard for Ned, but he still persisted when it was important.

Ned doesn’t trust his magic and physical abilities. An example of this is when he doubts himself and then makes a mistake with the Magic and makes the fire to draw the bandits. If he didn’t make the fire then he wouldn’t find an example of how dangerous the Magic is. On page 222, author Kelly Barnhill uses repetition when repeating the theme of the Magic making Ned do something he doesn’t want to do. Some evidence from the text is, “He tried to imagine himself heated all the way through. ‘All right then,’ the Magic said.” This is a theme that is repeated throughout the book. This makes me think that you should always trust yourself because you are yourself. When i think this, i think Ned really doubted himself with a lot of things including the Magic. If you do doubt, you will make a mistake. You always need to believe in yourself no matter what.

Ultimately in the book The Witch’s Boy, it becomes evident that you need to trust even if it means just trusting in yourself. Ned tries to trust in himself, not the Magic. He needed to believe in himself in order to be the boss of the Magic. When Ned trusted in himself he was also able to speak well. He doubted himself and his physical abilities so then he made a mistake. By not trusting himself about a lot of things, including the Magic, he continually made mistakes. Ned learned that you always need to trust yourself no matter what. The author used repetition throughout the book to convey the need to always believe in and trust yourself.