Transformation in Alice Walker's the Third Life of Grange Copeland

As life constantly moves and changes around us, we too are forced to change. In Alice Walker's The Third Life of Grange Copeland the protagonist is forced to examine his life and make changes in order to survive. Although difficult and oftentimes painful, these changes are necessary for him. Love for family is the driving force behind Grange's actions.

Grange Copeland is an angry, mean man. He rules his home with "no smiles about him" and he takes "every action as a personal affront" (Walker 9-10). He drinks too much and often takes his frustrations out on his wife. Grange is full of hate for white people, his family and most of all himself. This is the Grange who readers are introduced to in the beginning of Walker's debut novel. Grange is so completely fed up with his life that he eventually decides to simply walk away. Before he does, he looks in on his son, Brownfield, as the child feigns sleep: "He saw him reach down to touch him. He saw his hand stop; just before it reached his cheek -- He saw his father's hand drawback, without touching him. He saw him turn sharply and leave the room" (25). Grange is so cold and distant that he is unable to even touch his son, although it seems as if he wants to.

After years in the North, Grange returns to find that Brownfield has grown up to be just like his father. Brownfield is a husband and father. He drinks excessively and beats his wife, Mem. Grange tries to be a father to Brownfield but is rejected. After Brownfield brutally shoots his wife, Grange sees his opportunity to make amends by taking in his youngest grandchild, Ruth. It is this act of love that begins Grange's transformation. Grange realizes that he must let go of some of the anger that blocked him from being the man he should have been to his wife and son. This stems from Grange's belief that white people are the source of all his troubles. His blind rage towards whites causes him to internalize the hate on himself. Once he is able to let the anger go, he is able to love: "'˜The White folks hated me and I hated myself until I started hating them in return and loving myself. Then I tries just loving me, and then you, and ignoring them as much as I could'" (252). Once Grange is able to refocus the wasted energy of hate onto Ruth, he truly begins to transform.

Grange's love for Ruth is unlike anything that he has ever experienced. They enjoy life together, and through Ruth, Grange is able to truly live for the first time in his life. However, he is concerned about her naiveté and wants to teach her to be strong. Grange is amazed by Ruth's capacity to love him in return; he feels that he is unworthy of it. He attempts to protect her from certain aspects of his past. But it is his honesty that truly connects the two of them. Grange's honestly with himself helps him come to greater realizations about himself and his son as well. After Brownfield's release from prison, Grange tries again to reconnect with him by helping him understand the importance of responsibility in a man's life: "'˜All I'm saying, Brownfield
, -- is that one day I had to look back on my life and see where I went wrong -- We guilty, Brownfield, and neither one of us is going to move a step in the right direction until we admit it'" (265). By taking responsibility for his actions and acknowledging his part in the lows of his life, instead of shifting blame, Grange has transformed into a real man.

Grange's transformation does not come without doubt. Even after accepting responsibility for his life and the trouble he caused his wife and son, Grange questions whether or not he truly has the capacity for transformation. He explains his dilemma to Ruth: "'˜The trouble with numbness,' said Grange, as if he'd thought over is for a long time, '˜is that it spreads to all your organs, mainly at heart. Pretty soon after I don't hear the white folks crying for help I don't hear the black.' He looked at Ruth. '˜Maybe I don't even hear you'" (268). Grange, although he wants to change and knows that he has in some ways, doubts whether it is too late. But Ruth is there to assure him that he has. She tells him, "'˜You'd hear me all right!'" (268). Again Ruth provides the love and reassurance that Grange needs in his life. On more than one occasion, she serves as his life-line.

Evidence of Grange's full transformation is subtle. His actions toward Ruth and ability to connect with her, when he was unable to even touch his son, is perhaps the biggest transformation. But Grange also changes his perception of white people as well. When the two couples come to address Grange about voting, knowing his reputation, the white couple respectfully keeps their distance. However, in a small gesture of peace, Grange gives them a watermelon as they leave: "Grange couldn't quite look at the white girl but he gave a short not to the boy. And when he waved good-bye he waved to all of them" (304). This gesture shows that perhaps Grange has begun to change that way he feels about white people. This small act surely would have never occurred before Grange took custody of Ruth.

In the end, Grange proves the "some mens, in order to live, can't be innocent" (206). In a last ditch effort to save his granddaughter, Grange shoots and kills Brownfield. He does so because he knows that his son is still full of rage and hate and therefore unreceptive to transformation. Grange would rather take his own son's life and in essence end his own life, rather than subject Ruth to that kind of hate and cruelty. Ruth understands her grandfather's actions and knows that unlike her father, Grange is a changed man who acts out of love: "She was not to know until another time, that her grandfather, as she knew him, was a reborn man. She did not know fully even after he was dead, what cruelties and blood fostered his tolerance and his strength. And his love" (207). Grange is the personification of selfless love and affection.

Grange's love for his granddaughter Ruth made his decision to kill his son an essential act. He does not want to subject her to a life of pain and hurt. After Grange tells Brownfield that he must take responsibility for his actions, he informs him "Nobody's as powerful as we make them out to be. We got our own souls, don't we? (Walker 263). Walker uses Grange as a catalyst to prove the power of love and transformation. Once Grange begins to truly love himself, he was able to be a good father to Ruth. Source:Walker, Alice. The Third Life of Grange Copeland. New York: Harcourt Inc., 1970.