Symbol In The Tommyknockers Essay, Research Paper

The symbol I chose to talk about in this book is Peter the dog. He belonged to Roberta Anderson and was given to her by Jim Gardener, one of her best friends. This aging beagle (about eighty-four in dog years) was blind in one eye. Peter was Roberta’s old friend; she’d had him forever.

In this book, an evil force from a space ship overtakes Roberta. You can gage how far down the evil path she was by how she treated her dog. The dog was with her when she first stumbled upon the evil force she would later become victim of. The first sign that she wasn’t herself was that she ignored the promptings of Peter. He growled at the evil ship and tried to get her away from it.

Next, Roberta starts digging for the space ship, and eventually, Peter won’t go near the dig site because he recognizes the evil power that it emits. Roberta completely neglects her old friend, in favor of the evil force.

Finally, when Roberta is completely overtaken by the wickedness of the ship, she uses her old friend Peter in a twisted scientific experiment. This experiment puts Peter in a lot of pain, and eventually kills him.

The way that Roberta treats her dog, Peter, in the Tommyknockers, is a gage for how far evil she has become. It is sad that a trusted old friend such as Peter was treated so badly by a person that he probably trusted so much. Roberta’s abuse of Peter serves as a good symbol for the evil in this book.