TRANSFORMATION OF THE SELF: A PATH TO REDEMPTION IN ALICE WALKER’S THE THIRD LIFEOF GRANGE COPELAND

Abstract

Alice Walker emphasis on the transformation of the self along with the changes in the society is explicitly depicted in her works. The protagonist and the important characters undergo phenomenal change, an inevitable change to better the status of the black men and women. The discrimination of the black by the white society can be obliterated only by the mutual compatibility of the black men and women. Women characters transform from passive and submissive nature to active and rebellious. She believes in the possibility of men becoming androgynous as well. Walker’s conviction that emancipation of women is possible only when men mellow and transform themselves, is exemplified in her debut novel The Third Life of Grange Copeland.