Racism In Tim Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

727 Words3 Pages

Rough Draft To Kill a Mockingbird isn 't only a book about Maycomb in the 1930s, but its hidden bigger plot point is to prove that different types of people exist in the world. Some of these people have different views on their morals and racism. Some characters in the book are good examples of these problems, but some inanimate objects and animals do an even better job of resembling these problems. Atticus Finch did whatever he could to show his children and the entirety of Maycomb what good morals are and even when it seemed as if the whole town was against him he still went through with doing his best to save not only Tom Robinson but all of Maycomb. After the trial, he learned that Maycomb still has problems and that it will take …show more content…

The obvious symbol regarding racism resembles the mad dog. The mad dog was wandering through the streets of Maycomb looking for trouble and figuratively so does racism. As said by Adam Smykowski, “Tim Johnson, represents prejudice, and how, like a rabid dog, it spreads its disease throughout the south.” (Smykowski 2). This best quote most deeply represents the fact that Tim Johnson is another way of explaining the problem of racism in Maycomb. Another way the two are linked is shown when the mad dog gets shot down by Atticus as he tried to do in the court case with Tom Robinson too. “Tim Johnson was advancing at a snail 's pace, but he was not playing or sniffing at foliage: he seemed dedicated to one course and motivated by an invisible force that was inching him towards us. We could see him shiver like a horse shedding flies; his jaw opened and shut; he was alist, but he was being pulled gradually toward us.” (Lee 126) is Harper Lee’s way of saying that racism is a problem that moves slowly throughout but doesn 't mess around. The invisible force that Lee talks about is the people of Maycomb pushing for racism and since he is a list and making strange random movements, it can be said that the flow of racism throughout the town from person to person is the same