Alice Walker’s Perspective of Empowerment of Black Women as Revealed in her Novel “The Third Life of Grange Copeland”

Abstract

Alice Walker is a Black American novelist, essayist, short story writer, poetic, critic, biographer, editor and Pulitzer Prize laureate. Alice Walker captures the experience of Black women in her works as a series of movements from women who are victimized by the society to women who have taken control of their lives consciously. She has explored the lives of Black women in depth even questions their fate. She has courage to see through the seeds of time and declares that in future black women would no longer live in suspension. “The Third Life of Grange Copeland” (1970) was the first novel of Alice Walker. The focus is on Black women characters in The Third Life who empower themselves through education and economic independence. This novel introduces the domination of powerless women by equally powerless men. The novel challenges African Americans to take a scrutinizing look at them. Mary Margaret Richards observes that “The Oldest generation represented by Grange finds itself trapped in a share cropper system… a form of slavery (African –American Writers, p.744). The novel introduces many of her prevalent themes, particularly the domination of powerless women by equally powerless men.