The Third Life of Grange Copeland: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Third Life of Grange Copeland" is a poignant exploration of the struggles faced by African American families in the rural South during the 20th century. The narrative centers around Grange Copeland, a sharecropper who embodies the frustrations and helplessness of his socioeconomic circumstances. Grange's abusive behavior towards his wife, Margaret, and son, Brownfield, reflects his internalized rage and feelings of powerlessness. As the story unfolds, Grange's journey takes him to Harlem, where he confronts systemic racism, only to return to Georgia, grappling with his past mistakes and attempting to forge a better life for his granddaughter Ruth, who represents hope for future generations.
Margaret, Grange's first wife, endures a tragic transformation from a submissive partner to a broken woman driven to despair by years of abuse. Their son, Brownfield, repeats the cycle of violence and neglect, ultimately failing to break free from the patterns set by his father. Mem, Brownfield's wife, initially blooms in her role but is ultimately stifled by her husband's aggression. Ruth, the youngest, offers a glimpse of a different perspective, challenging the patterns of hatred and envisioning a future beyond the constraints of her family's legacy. Through these complex characters, the narrative delves into themes of love, violence, and the longing for self-determination amidst systemic oppression.
The Third Life of Grange Copeland: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Alice Walker
First published: 1970
Genre: Novel
Locale: Georgia and New York City
Plot: Family
Time: 1920 to the early 1960's
Grange Copeland, the protagonist, a black sharecropper in Georgia. A tall, gaunt man who has worked hard all of his life, Grange is poor, ignorant, and in debt to the white plantation owner. He abuses his wife and son in response to his own powerlessness and eventually abandons them to try his luck in the North. While living in Harlem, he attacks racism, rather than merely reacting to it as he had done in Georgia. He realizes that he cannot succeed in a one-man attack on racial discrimination and returns to Georgia. On his return, he marries his longtime lover, Josie, but treats her badly and tries in vain to keep his son from making the mistakes that he himself has made. Only his granddaughter, Ruth, receives his love, as he tries to make up for past sins. Grange never loses his hatred of white people, but he comes to realize how his hatred has made him weak. He tries to make a life for himself and for Ruth that will enable them to stay free by never depending on whites for anything.
Margaret Copeland, Grange's first wife and the mother of Brownfield and a bastard son. In the early years of her marriage, Margaret is soft and has sweet breath, and she is as submissive to her husband as a dog. After years of abuse, she becomes hardened and turns to drinking and promiscuity. It is her sexual relationship with the white plantation owner, resulting in the birth of a child, that finally drives Grange away for good. Margaret has never stopped loving Grange, and when he leaves, she kills herself and the baby, leaving fifteen-year-old Brownfield to fend for himself.
Brownfield Copeland, the neglected son of Grange and Margaret. As a baby, he is unattended, unfed, and unchanged all day because both parents work in the fields. He never attends school and envies his cousins up North. Abandoned by both parents at the age of fifteen, he sets out to find the North but only gets as far as Josie's Dew Drop Inn. After several years of sharing the home and beds of Josie and her daughter, Brownfield falls in love with the beautiful and educated Mem, whom he marries. He comes to resent her accomplishments, however, and to despise her. He begins to repeat his father's life, working long hours as a sharecropper for little reward, beating his wife and children, drinking away his earnings, and spending his nights with Josie. His once-handsome body becomes worn down from hard work and disease. Unlike his father, Brownfield never learns to accept any responsibility for his own failings. He believes that white people have kept him from being a man, and that the only way to assert his manliness is to abuse his family.
Mem Copeland, Brownfield's wife. Cherry brown, plump, quiet, and demure, Mem was educated in Atlanta and speaks a dialect that at first sounds wonderful to Brownfield. She is a schoolteacher for several years and teaches Brownfield to read and write. In the early years of their marriage, she is a happy and devoted wife. Brownfield then begins to beat her, makes her give up teaching to become a domestic, makes her speak the way he speaks, and moves her from one ram-shackle cabin to another. Mem is resigned to her own fate but fights back at Brownfield when the children's future is at stake. For a few years, Mem rises to power in the family and there is a surface of domestic harmony, but Brownfield eventually supplants her, and chaos and violence are restored.
Ruth Copeland, the youngest daughter of Brownfield and Mem. Born in a frozen cabin while her drunken father sleeps, Ruth receives her first beating from her father at the age of four, then watches him kill her mother at eight. She moves in with Grange and Josie and becomes the center of Grange's life, squeezing out even Josie. She is spoiled and sassy, and her only friend is Grange. At the age of sixteen, she loves to read and wonders about life outside the farm that Grange has established to protect them from white society. Unlike Grange, she believes that white people could change and that hating them for their ancestors' sins against her ancestors is wrong.
Josie Copeland, a prostitute, Grange's second wife and Brownfield's first lover. She is cantaloupe-colored, fat, and a voracious lover. She and Grange have had a relationship since before his first marriage, and it is to her that he returns after ten years in the North. Josie has spent those years as Brownfield's mistress, and she returns to Brownfield after Ruth steals Grange's heart. Both men abuse her, and she becomes a lonely old woman who realizes that she has never been loved.