Existentialism and “The Third Life of Grange Copeland” by Alice Walker ( Pages 1 • 2 • 3 )

 

Other essays and articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include : The Role of African-American Traditions in Walker’s “Everyday Use”

 

Early in the plot of “The Third Life of Grange Copeland” the reader sees how these conditions have served to dehumanize Grange completely. He sees himself as a “stone," a "robot," and a "cipher" (Walker 8). These symbolic self-representations are crucial, for none of these three images is capable of autonomous decision-making or self-determination. Neither is Grange capable of self-directed action. The only recourse that he can identify throughout the course of “The Third Life of Grange Copeland” as a means of exerting agency and power is to use the same tools of oppression that have been used against him. Grange is physically, verbally, and psychologically abusive towards his wives, especially Margaret, as well as to his son, Brownfield. Just as the mechanisms of oppression have dehumanized Grange Copeland, so, too, will they have the effect of robbing the people Grange Copeland is supposed to love of their own humanity and capacity for self-determination.

 

The varied fates of Grange’s family members and other characters in "The Third Life of Grange Copeland" by Alice Walker demonstrates how the dynamics of oppression can have a number of distinct outcomes; however, the characteristic that all of these outcomes share is that they work against the possibility of an individual and a community constructing meaning for themselves. Instead, the oppressed characters in "The Third Life of Grange Copeland" by Alice Walker proceed through their lives desperately and mechanically. If there is any character worthy of deep character analysis it is Margaret in "The Third Life of Grange Copeland" by Alice Walker, Grange’s first wife, commits suicide after enduring Grange’s abuse for years. Before she does so, she becomes bitter and prostitutes herself to the plantation owner, willingly subjecting herself to perpetuated oppression. While one might argue that the character Margaret engages in sex with the plantation owner willingly, her lack of alternatives helps the reader to comprehend that Margaret’s “choice” is neither an authentic nor a viable option that could lead her to understand herself or others, or which could help her realize her life’s purpose and meaning. When she chooses to kill herself, another action that cannot really be viewed as an act of free will and thoughtful personal choice but simply an escape from unbearable conditions, Margaret abandons the 15 year old Brownfield, who imitates the behavior of his parents.

 

Brownfield is, perhaps, even more dysfunctional than his father and his mother in "The Third Life of Grange Copeland" by Alice Walker, and despite the fact that he could have represented the hope that a new generation almost always symbolizes, the internalization of oppression is so complete that his aggressive and abusive actions against himself and others point to this character’s profound existential crisis. From the earliest moments of his life, Brownfield learned that he was not capable of determining the meaning and purpose of his own life. Not only did his parents role model that self-determination was impossible for them, but they also failed to encourage him to break the mold that had been cast for them. Like Grange, Brownfield perpetrates terrible abuses, and even violent, despicable murder, against the people he is supposed to love. He treats his wife like a “nigger and a whore...and if she made no complaint, [he judged her] guilty” (Walker 48).

 

Brownfield also views himself in a similar light as Grange viewed himself earlier, during Grange’s first life. Brownfield reflects upon his powerlessness and his inability to determine the direction and shape that his life will take when he thinks the following: “He could not save his children from slavery; they did not even belong to him. His indebtedness depressed him. Year after year the amount he owed continued to climb. He thought of suicide and never forgot it” (Walker 46). Brownfield’s imitation of the dynamics of oppression that restrict his possibilities for self-determination and meaning making not only stunt his own psychological growth, but also the connection and growth of his family and, by implication, the larger community. He becomes even more violent and oppressive than his father, who is in New York and undergoing the first stages of his radical transformation.

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