Character Analysis: Dolphus Raymond

Another character who is victimized by racial discrimination and its consequences is Dolphus Raymond. He is a prosperous white man who lives outside of Macomb with his black paramour and his mixed children. Dolphus fakes being drunk so that the people in Macomb have an excuse for his inappropriate behaviours. He prefers the citizens of Macomb to despise him for a valid excuse rather than to discriminate him based on his personal choices. Racial discrimination negatively effects Dolphus and his children. As Jem remarks that the mulatto children “ ‘don't belong anywhere. Colored folks won't have 'em because they're half white, white folks won't have 'em 'cause they're colored, so they're just in-betweens, don't belong anywhere.’ ”(Lee 215). No one considers to take the mixed children because they are half

It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason. When I come to town, which is seldom, if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks can say Dolphus Raymond’s in the clutches of whiskey—that’s why he won’t change his ways. He can’t help himself, that’s why he lives the way he does.’ ” (Lee 268) Raymond provides valid points to why he pretends to be someone he's not. He proceeds to tell Scout and Dill that he being a fake alcoholic allows the residents of Macomb to view him differently. He believes that the citizens of Macomb will have an excuse to rebuff him, instead of to exclude him because of his significant other. His alcoholic disguise provides an excuse for his atypical behaviours and choices to recount to the people in Macomb. Dolphus is surely aware that the white citizens of Macomb find it socially unacceptable for a white man to be married to a black woman. He prefers to socialize with the Negroes than his fellow white colleagues. No one in Macomb associates with Dolphus because he chooses to live with a black woman whom he