When reading this chunk of, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” one passage in particular made an immediate connection in my mind to another text that we have read as a class. Tim Johnson, the ill dog that wandered into town, barely able to walk and obviously miserable, is similar in both character and function to Candy’s dog in, “Of Mice and Men,” by John Steinbeck. Not only are they similar in their literal meaning, but both dogs are deeply symbolic for multiple things. In Of Mice and Men, the dog’s story is a parallel to both Curley’s Wife (who was also unnamed and seen as a possession) and Lennie (who was also shot “for his own good”). And in To Kill a Mockingbird, the dog is most clearly a symbol for the oncoming problems for Atticus and his family after Atticus’ refusal to drop/leave the Tom Robinson case. Atticus’ reluctance to shoot the dog and him not really wanting to take the case, but knowing that he has to do both is just one of the ways that the symbol plays out.
However, that’s not all the ill dog represents. Tim Johnson could also be read as a metaphor for Tom Robinson himself. The dog in the street’s disability and persistence to keep going, “motivated by an invisible force” is directly comparable to Tom Robinson, almost even foreshadowing. While this can be cracked up to just his animalistic instincts, his persistence despite his disability is uncannily similar to that of Tom Robinson throughout the book. While Tom, at least up to this point in the story, is not physically disabled in the traditional sense, he’s also not white, and due to how race is viewed in his society, this gives him a disadvantage that rules over all aspects of his life. In Elizabeth Brewer’s, “Coming out Mad, Coming out Disabled,” she writes about A.J. Withers, a trans person who associates themselves with the disabled community because of how they were psychiatrized by others due to their gender identity.
Jumping off of that way of thinking, Tom Robinson could be considered disabled in a similar, societal way due to his race. People who belong to other minorities tend to interact with disability studies in similar ways. While the experience of being trans is vastly different than the experience of being a part of a racial minority, A.J. Withers and Tom’s experiences ares still comparable. Robinson being black is a big reason of why he is in this unfortunate situation and unnecessary legal trouble to begin with. Thus, the dog continuing to walk forward, despite his disability and pain also symbolizes Tom Robinson’s persistence with the trial, despite being, as Atticus Finch would say, “licked from the start.”
In conclusion, while Tim Johnson is only in this book for a few pages, the metaphors and symbolism surrounding his character allow opportunities to spring up involving several questions and discussion points about disability, some of which have tricky, unstable, and indefinite answers.
501 Words
I Pledge: Makayla Harrington
