You could get a variety of answers to this question, but I
will suggest that three other characters who hide their identities for acceptance are
Dill, Miss Stephanie Crawford, and Mrs. Dubose.
Dill tells
wild and fanciful stories the entire first summer he is visiting Maycomb, because he
doesn't want to admit that his parents basically get rid of him each summer for a
break. His imagination and sense of humor likely both grew from a deep
loneliness.
Miss Stephanie Crawford is known as a
neighborhood gossip and that is about all. Anytime a character is used as a shallow
reminder of things that are obvious, it can be assumed that there is more there than
meets the eye. Certainly, we'll never know, as Harper Lee didn't take the time to go
down that road. But I would suspect that Miss Stephanie spent many years cultivating
such a role for herself so that she would at least be something
rather than nothing, in Maycomb.
Finally, Mrs. Dubose, a
morphine addict, scares the children away by sitting on her front porch cursing
everything under the sun. Again, we know this woman has a depth to her that runs deep.
Even Atticus respects her. She's a minor character, however, and while her entire story
is left untold, we have to assume that the crotchety old woman presented on the porch is
not really the person Mrs. Dubose wants to be remembered as.
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