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What Does Tim Johnson Symbolize In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Symbolism in To Kill a Mockingbird
Like Martin Luther King Jr. expresses, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” (BrainyQuote). To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a story about how a little boy breaks his arm and the racism the town of Maycomb, Alabama experiences. The children of a lawyer named Atticus Finch experience love, hate, and courage. At the start, Scout and Jem obsess over their neighbor, Boo Radley, who never comes outside of his house. However, the novel takes a turn when Atticus decides to defend an African American man accused of raping a white woman. Atticus defends the man despite the odds …show more content…

At this time in To Kill a Mockingbird, Calpurnia, the servant, spots a mad dog running around Maycomb near the house and panics. She decides to call Atticus because she is worried someone or something will recieve the disease from the peculiar dog. “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,” Scout explains, “We could see him shiver like a horse shedding flies; his jaw opened and shut: he was alist, but he was being gradually pulled toward us” (Lee 126). Tim Johnson himself epitomizes Tom Robinson. In addition to representing Tom, the disease that Tim Johnson is carrying demonstrates how quickly racism can spread, along with how deadly and terrifying it can be. As Smykowski writes in “Symbolism and Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird,” “It may not seem so at first, but the shooting of the rabid dog by Atticus was, indeed, greatly illustrative. Here the rabid dog, Tim Johnson, represents prejudice, and how, like a rabid dog, it spreads its disease throughout the south” (Smykowski). To sum up, Tim Johnson, the mad dog, symbolizes how cruel and painful racism is and how like a disease, it spreads …show more content…

The mockingbird shows us the innocence among people of Maycomb who are opposing to the blue jay that exemplifies the “bullies” of the small town. The rabid dog Tim Johnson is a symbol for the deadly spreading of racism throughout the south. In fact, the snowman together with the house fire, the mockingbirds and blue jays, in addition to Tim Johnson, are all symbols for racism and prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This novel causes wishful thinking for a day when racism will cease to exist, just like Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”

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In chapter 10 of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, an allegory for racism, prejudice, and injustice is created through the mad dog Tim Johnson as he wanders through the Finches’ hometown of Maycomb. Scout’s narration of the mad dog’s appearance, his death by Atticus's gun, and his disposal after death all combine to shape him into a symbol of the injustice and racism prevalent in Scout’s childhood and during the Great Depression. Tim Johnson is a significant literary device in Lee’s narrative that conveys the story’s central themes of how inequality becomes embedded in a community despite its danger and what measures the community needs to take to eliminate it. When every person in Maycomb gets sent indoors to avoid the mad dog, Scout observes

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The mad dog represents Tom Robinson because of the inevitability of their respective circumstances and their respective fates. Ironically, in Tom Robinson’s case, Atticus is trying to prevent him from being shot, while in Tim Johnson’s circumstances, Atticus is the one trying to shoot the dog. With both Tim Johnson

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