Who Is The Mad Dog In To Kill A Mockingbird

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One of the most important symbols in To Kill a Mockingbird is the mad dog. The dog itself represents social disease in Macomb county and it is killed by Atticus, which is also symbolic. This, however, is a simple and surface meaning. On a deeper level, the dog can represent the succession of a normal Maycomb resident’s life. As someone is young, he is not contaminated with the disease of racism and discrimination, but as he get older, his ideas are corrupted and the innocence is lost. In a literal sense, when Atticus shoots the dog, he is protecting his children. Throughout the book he is also shielding them from the social disease in which the adults in Maycomb are infected. Scout is reminded of the mad dog when she is sitting in the court

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