Most people see Dolphus as a man who can’t help himself from drinking and behaving irrationally, but realistically, he is an intelligent, caring man. He acts like a drunk and sits with the blacks in public because he loves a black woman and has racially mixed children, and wants people to have an excuse for the way he behaves around them. Most of the whites in Maycomb ignore Dolphus, and don’t treat him badly because they think he can’t help himself. Only the people close to Dolphus know that it is actually Coca-Cola that he drinks, not whiskey. Scout and Dill discover this when Dolphus gives Dill a sip of his drink after the trial.
Dolphus wants to fit into both the black and white communities, and in a way, he does. He sits with the blacks in public and respects them. Around the whites, he pretends to drink, so they will “accept” him into part of their community. The citizens of Maycomb don’t criticize him for loving a black woman because they think he is being controlled by his alcohol addiction. This makes life easier for both Dolphus and Maycomb.
Dolphus wishes that Maycomb and its citizens would show more respect to the blacks, because they are treated very unfairly. One