Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
"When the Lessons Hurt": The Third Life of Grange Copeland as Joban Allegory by Kate Cochran Alice Walker's first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, recounts three different experiences of racial and economic oppression in the South. In detailing the stories of Brownfield, Grange, and Ruth, Walker not only illustrates her own theories of the importance of maintaining the individual soul in the context of community, as documented in her non-fiction work, but also elucidates methods of surviving suffering. Walker presents three variations on the Job quest in the journeys of Brownfield, Grange, and Ruth; these characters begin their stories as uniquely oppressed in the sharecropping system and in the corresponding environment of domestic violence and consequent self-hatred of mid-twentiethcentury Georgia. Each is faced with making meaning of his suffering and thereby transcending that suffering and its vicious cycle of brutality. Just as Job meets his anguish with a tripartite reaction of fear and misery, rage and rebellion, and serenity and compassion, so too do these characters evolve. However, none is a complete Job figure. Brownfield stagnates in the rage juncture of the cycle; Grange stops short of developing a cosmic sense of compassion; and, though the
The Southern Literary Journal – University of North Carolina Press
Published: Dec 1, 2001
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.