The Third Life of Grange Copeland (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Alice Walker
- First Published: 1970
- Type of Plot: Family chronicle
- Time of Work: 1920 to the early 1960’s
- Setting: Georgia and New York City
- Principal Characters: Grange Copeland, Margaret Copeland, Brownfield Copeland, Mem Copeland, Ruth Copeland, Josie
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Family literature
- Subjects: African Americans, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Racism, Suicide, Murder or homicide, Twentieth century, New York City, Domestic violence, Georgia, Farms, farmers, or farming
- Locales: New York, NY, Georgia
The Novel
George Copeland’s life stretches from before 1900 to the early 1960’s. It covers roughly three generations of blacks in the state of Georgia, and his three lives roughly correspond to the generations. Alice Walker, however, does not focus exclusively on George Copeland to characterize the three generations. She devotes the first half of the novel to Grange’s son, Brownfield, to reveal what Grange was as a young man; to capture the essence of Grange’s “third life,” she tells the story of Ruth, Grange’s granddaughter. Only the account of the middle period...
[The entire page is 2988 words long]
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