Examples Of Double Consciousness In To Kill A Mockingbird

The characters in “To Kill a Mockingbird” display several aspects of double consciousness; through the duration of the story the opinions of certain characters in the eyes of society transform. We all lead double lives. There is the face that we show at home, known only to those with whom we are most intimate. The same face that we try to hide in public, the arguments with our parents, the nightmares that jolt us awake in the middle of the night. Then there is the face we show to the rest of the world, or at least try to, that of a confident, happy, successful person.
Atticus demonstrates double consciousness when he presents himself as the town lawyer before a father figure. For instance, days before Tom Robinson’s trial, he is only with Jem and Scout for a brief span of time. “Atticus would flee to his office directly after dinner,” he would reappear solely to say “[you] folks be in bed when I come back, so I’ll say

In the start of the story nobody saw or heard from Boo; all they knew was the stories they had been told about how horrible he was. As Scout recalled “nobody knew what form of intimidation Mr.Radley employed to keep Boo out of sight, but Jem figured that Mr.Radley kept him chained to the bed most of the time”(11). As time went on, Arthur seemed less as a monster and more as a whisper of a man. After Miss Maudie’s house caught fire, Atticus revealed to Scout that “[Scout was] so busy looking at the fire [Scout] didn’t know it when [Boo] put the blanket on around [her]”(72). To Scout that was horrifying, but it proved that he wasn't some monstrous person. Society didn’t recognize this until Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout. As Scout stated “Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good luck pennies, and our lives”(278). She and everyone else knew then that he was no ghost; he was a