An Artist in Making: A Critical Analysis of Alice Walker’sFirst Novel The Third Life of Grange Copeland

Abstract

The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970) recounts three different experiences of racial and economic oppression in the life stories of Grange, Brownfield and Ruth. These characters begin their stories as oppressed in the sharecropping system and in the corresponding environment of domestic violence and self-hatred. Grange’s heroic and benevolent character bears little relation to his earlier presentation as a silent, brutal farmer. Brownfield progresses from a child of poverty and degradation to almost a tyrant-monster figure, and Ruth becomes the great hope of a generation. A crucial phase of Ruth’s development is her growing awareness of society as a dynamic process instead of a static hierarchy where everyone must fit into his or her place. By the end of the novel, Ruth has been deeply stirred by the “Movement,” which she feels will transform her world.