What Does Tim Johnson Symbolize

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Meet Tim Johnson. He was just snuffling along, investigating interesting smells, burying basic only to dig them upwardly once again, and looking out for lady dogs, when—bam—the symbolic construction of the book picks him up and decrees he has to die. Why? What did poor Tim the Dog ever practice to get infected with rabies and be gunned down like, well, a dog?

For starters, there'southward his name. It may seem odd to give an animal the terminal name of the family unit it belongs to, merely it's apparently mutual practice in Maycomb. Judge Taylor's pooch gets the aforementioned treatment. But more interestingly, it allows the dog's proper noun to sound suspiciously like that of another character. Tim Johnson…Tom Robinson? Coincidence? Maybe. Only Lookout's memory of her father shooting the dog does popular upwardly more than in one case in situations involving Tom, and doesn't get mentioned otherwise.

For case, later Scout turns abroad the lynch mob, her memory of Atticus in front of the jail merges with her memory of him shooting the dog.

I was very tired, and was drifting into sleep when the memory of Atticus calmly folding his newspaper and pushing back his hat became Atticus standing in the middle of an empty waiting street, pushing up his spectacles. The total meaning of the dark's events hit me and I began crying. (sixteen.3)

But why does Scout acquaintance the ii images? Perhaps they're both examples of Atticus doing tough things he doesn't desire to practice. Or of Atticus facing off with a mindless threat. (He does later refer to the men in the lynch mob as "animals" [16.22]).

Sentinel returns to this retention again when she'south dozing off, waiting for the jury to announce its verdict in Tom's case:

The feeling grew until the atmosphere in the courtroom was exactly the same as a common cold Feb forenoon, when the mockingbirds were however, and the carpenters had stopped hammering on Miss Maudie's new house, and every forest door in the neighborhood was shut as tight as the doors of the Radley Place. A deserted, waiting, empty street, and the courtroom was packed with people. A steaming summer night was no dissimilar from a wintertime morning. […]. I expected Mr. Tate to say whatsoever minute, "Take him, Mr. Finch...." (21.46)

Why does Scout take this feeling? In both past and present, she's waiting for something to happen; both times, she has no power over the outcome. In the previous instance, Atticus'due south skill with a gun was able to save the neighborhood from the mad domestic dog; will he be able to do the aforementioned this time? The aforementioned image recurs once more than every bit the jury delivers their verdict.

I saw something only a lawyer'south child could be expected to see, could be expected to lookout for, and information technology was like watching Atticus walk into the street, raise a rifle to his shoulder and pull the trigger, but watching all the time knowing that the gun was empty. A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not ane of them looked at Tom Robinson. (21.48)

Even Atticus's talent for sharp-shooting can't exercise anything if the gun isn't loaded. It's tempting to try to map out the symbolism hither—is the gun the legal procedure? are the bullets the jury? is Tim Johnson racism?—but that might exist an oversimplification. Peradventure it's simply the feeling Sentinel has that's the link between the two situations—the sick horror at what's happening, but knowing that information technology tin't be whatever other way.

What Does Tim Johnson Symbolize,

Source: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/to-kill-a-mockingbird/analysis/the-mad-dog

Posted by: greenfrobon51.blogspot.com

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