Learn English – the correct term for a story that sits alongside another one in time and place

There are a few metaphors that occur in Jo's Boys that resemble what you're talking about.

pp. 263: "They'd see and smell and feel the prison taint on me..."

pp. 327: "He longed to go home, but waited week after week to get the prison taint off him and the haggard look out of his face."

pp. 338: "All the old prison gloom seemed to settle like a black cloud on Dan's face..."

pp. 343: "... and to help wear away the first sharpness of the prison brand."

I thought of unknowingly when I read your post.

From The Free Dictionary:

unknowingly - without knowledge or intention; "he unwittingly deleted the references"

Synonyms: inadvertently, unwittingly