History BecomingTheMask / Literature

* In ''Outcaste'', first of the ''Literature/{{Spaceforce}}'' novels, the protagonist Jay is born into a world where everyone's occupation is absolutely determined by birth, or 'caste'. Dissatisfied with his fate as a lowly blacksmith, Jay sheds his identity and masquerades first as Priest Caste, and then as Swordbearer Caste. He spends many years as a swordbearer, is evidently comfortable with this identity, and presumably would have lived the rest of his life like this if events hadn't conspired against him.

* Aeril in ''LightNovel/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'' infiltrates the Seven Dragon Paladins as the friendly and helpful "Coral". She grows to like her new role and to value the lives of common people, [[spoiler:eventually doing a HeelFaceTurn]]. Downplayed as she was already the WhiteSheep of her family.

* In Creator/HarryTurtledove's [[https://www.tor.com/2011/04/14/shtetl-days/ "Shtetl Days"]], a group of actors spend their days portraying the inhabitants of a small Jewish community, for the entertainment of citizens of a triumphant 21st-century Third Reich. All of the Jews who actually lived in the region have long since been slain. [[spoiler: But the entire group of actors, unbeknownst to the Reich, have begun adopting Jewish customs, attitudes, and beliefs in their own lives, and think of themselves as heirs to the Jewish tradition.]]

* In ''Literature/GoodOmens'' it's repeatedly pointed out by other demons that this seems to be what happened to Crowley; he's spent so much time making sure he fit seamlessly into the role of the human he's supposed to be that he became that person over time, and eventually comes to really love humanity. Aziraphale does this as well, integrating into humanity well enough that he becomes enough of a bastard for [[HeterosexualLifePartners Crowley]] to [[HoYay spend several millennia with]].
** Likewise, at one point, Adam the young Anti-Christ is sent a massive Hellhound that takes the form that Adam most desires for it, which just so happens to be a small yapping dog. While it initially struggles with the new instincts it gets as a result of TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody, it grows to enjoy its new form and carefree life of catching sticks more than it ever enjoyed chewing up the souls of the damned and such. The presence of female dogs probably didn't hurt much.

* Creator/OHenry's "A Retrieved Reformation". Master safecracker Jimmy Valentine poses as an ordinary salesman in a town, and becomes the mask to the extent that he gives up his old life and plans to marry the banker's daughter. He even arranges to get rid of his trunk of safecracking tools. And then, on the day he hauls the trunk into town to get rid of it, the one cop who might recognize him shows up hunting him. And a child gets trapped in the bank's vault in such a way that only a master safecracker could possibly get her out before she suffocates.

* In Creator/CJCherryh's ''Literature/{{Foreigner}}'' series, a wandering starship's crew are marooned on a planet of nine-foot-tall humanoid aliens, called 'atevi'. Unable to understand human emotions or the idea of love and friendship, they went to war against the perceived threat to their way of life. Human annihilation was only prevented by scholars on both sides equating the "English" (or should that be Basic?) word for treaty, with man'chi, the ateva word for association, a hard-wired homing instinct under fire. Since then, humans live on the island of Mospheira and the atevi of the Western association remain on the continent. No one is allowed to make contact between the two except the interpreter, or 'paidhi'. Bren Cameron becomes so attuned to atevi mindsets and language that he eventually becomes aligned with their point of view and begins to lose human feeling. He cannot show any form of emotion, because that would be deemed extremely threatening by atevi, whose legal recourse in disputes is assassination via an Assassins' Guild. He gradually takes on their mannerisms and can no longer remove the bland, impassive expression on his face - literally becoming the "mask" that he has to wear in public on the mainland.

* In ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', [[spoiler: Sansa Stark]] undergoes this when masquerading as [[MagnificentBastard Littlefinger's]] bastard daughter. She starts thinking of herself as Alayne Stone, her fake name, and refers to Littlefinger as her father, even while he's making sexual advances on her.
** This happens to several characters as the story goes on. Before book 4, the title of each chapter is the point-of-view character's real name. Starting in book 4, the titles of most chapters have changed to whatever alias or title the point-of-view character may be using at the moment.

* In one ''Literature/BerenstainBears'' book, Mama had grown increasingly annoyed with the family's lack of manners, and as a result, laid down some strict rules on how to have better manners. The cubs didn't like the idea and decided to drive Mama crazy by acting overly polite. It backfired when they began doing it naturally and even call Papa out on name-calling when he insults a driver in front of him toward the end of the book, little realizing (as the driver subsequently explained to him) that they were in front of a duck crossing.

* Occurs in reverse in Creator/CSLewis ''Literature/TheGreatDivorce''. A man who keeps trying to emotionally manipulate his love interest slowly becomes "The Tragedian", a false personality given to hackneyed dramatic gestures, and his real, honest (if average) personality gradually shrinks away to nothing. Ironically, she loved him as he was.
** In his other works, Lewis also discusses this trope in action (sort of) when explaining how he saw Christianity: by "acting like" Christ, you enable the inward transformation process to happen faster.

* Robert A. Heinlein's ''Literature/DoubleStar'' is about an actor who is hired to [[EmergencyImpersonation impersonate a kidnapped politician so that he will not miss his own adoption into a Martian "nest"]]. As time goes on the job gets stretched longer and longer and then the politician dies, with the masquerade still in place. He has to keep up the impersonation for over 25 years, and pretty much becomes his role. (He was an anti-Martian before the job, and is hired to impersonate one of the biggest pro-Martian activists. By the end of the 25 years, he has completed all the causes of the politician, and more.)

** ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': Dalinar Kholin did this on purpose, with the [[CodeOfHonour Alethi Codes of War]]. As the Blackthorn, he was little better than a bloody cudgel in his brother's hand; with Gavilar's death, Dalinar realized he needed to be something else. He followed the Codes for long enough that it became as natural as breathing. Kaladin gets close to this truth when he wonders if his gesture at the end of the first book is just him pretending to be honorable. He decides that if you're willing to [[spoiler:''give up a [[ArtifactOfAttraction Shardblade]]'']] to "pretend" to be honorable, you're not really pretending any more.

* Creator/AgathaChristie pulled this one with Dr. Rathbone from ''They Came to Baghdad'': a con man who established a philanthropic society to make money, but ended up believing in what he preached.

** Moist Von Lipwig in ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' initially only pretends to like his new post but ultimately gets his criminal thrills by being a LargeHam showman for the post office. At the end of the book he decides that as long as he never actually ''admits'' to himself he's become the mask, he never has to stop wearing it.
*** As we see later in ''Discworld/MakingMoney'', [[spoiler:though on the surface he seemed to embrace his new job, his criminal's instincts have never left, and he becomes more and more dissatisfied with it as time goes on. His criminal instincts remain, but he acquires a strong drive to use them for good. (He was a sort of AntiVillain before, but has definitely graduated to LoveableRogue over the course of his new career.)]]
** [[spoiler:Walter Plinge]] in ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'' eventually Became The Mask permanently, with a little help from Granny Weatherwax.
** In ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'' [[spoiler:Sergeant Jackrum. Not only has she been in disguise long enough to make a detailed account of most of the other women hiding in the ranks of the army, she also has evaded her service papers discharging her from the army for years. As the war ends, she admits to Polly that she doesn't want to return home to just be an old biddy. Polly suggests that she keep the mask and return home as a respected retired sergeant instead]].

* Robert A. Heinlein's ''Literature/DoubleStar'' is about an actor who is hired to [[EmergencyImpersonation impersonate a kidnapped politician so that an election won't be disrupted]]. As time goes on the job gets stretched longer and longer and then the politician dies, with the masquerade still in place. He has to keep up the impersonation for over 25 years, and pretty much becomes his role. (He was an anti-Martian before the job, and is hired to impersonate one of the biggest pro-Martian activists. By the end of the 25 years, he has completed all the causes of the politician, and more.)

** The novel ''Literature/MotherNight'' is about an American living in Germany who was recruited to work as a Nazi propagandist so he could pass information to the Americans. While he never converts to Nazism, he has to act like one for so long that he's actually unsure of which side he belongs to. Near the end, one of his German relatives tells him that, even if he turned out to be a spy, it wouldn't matter because he'd done so much for the Nazi party that it would outweigh any work he did for the Allies. The introduction of the novel lampshades the theme when it says "We are what we pretend to be."

* Lucky deals with this when he joins the Wild Pack as a spy in ''Literature/SurvivorDogs''. He's supposed to betray them but he finds it harder and harder with each passing day. To add to the conflict, Lucky is in love with the Wild Pack beta, Sweet, but he also feels loyalty towards his litter-sister Bella back in the Leashed Dog Pack.

** Shai, of ''Literature/TheEmperorsSoul'', possesses five Essence Marks (powerful magic items that rewrite a person's history). Four merely grant useful skills and some physical changes, while allowing her to remember who and what she really is. The fifth is different. If she every uses that Mark, it will totally erase her old life. As far as she would then know, the simple farm-girl life that Mark gives her would be the only life she every had.

* ''Literature/UnderAlienSky''. Main Character Jason Sykes's mother is TheMole for a resistance cell acting as the human liaison for the Tsorian military commander. While this might not be such a problem if the man was your typical evil alien, he's actually a good man with a deep respect for the native civilization. When her friends use a plan to kidnap the commander that gets him injured, Jason finds his mother softly crying I a corner. Though at first he thinks the alien hurt her during his capture, it turns out she's actually lamenting the betrayal of trust she'd had to perform to lure him into the trap.