Racial and ethnic minorities face distressing experiences due to their
race. The literary researchers began to coin to investigate ‘race-based trauma’ to
fathom out how the race affects the social, emotional, and psychological well-being
of racial groups. These researchers were pointing out race as a leading factor
for experiencing trauma among racial and ethnic groups. Black Americans, as racial
minorities, are exposed to race-related problems; therefore, they are likely to
suffer from race-based trauma. Alice Walker’s The Third Life of Grange Copeland
is an embodiment of how race brings about emotional stress, fear, and trauma in
the Black society. Walker, through the portrayal of the Copeland family, depicts
circles of repression, degradation, and poverty. In the story, Grange and his family,
as the microcosm of the black society, are depicted as powerless, oppressed,
and traumatized. Walker exposes that the life of the Copeland family is devoid
of any rights and values, as they do not belong to the white hegemonic society.
Nonetheless, Walker reveals the healing process and metamorphosis journey of
the characters. This article aims to explore the role of race in relation to trauma in
Alice Walker’s The Third Life of Grange Copeland. Moreover, the article unearths
the characters’ healing process from the trauma.
Primary Language | English |
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Journal Section | Issue |
Authors | |
Publication Date | September 30, 2019 |
Submission Date | September 4, 2019 |
Published in Issue | Year 2019 Issue: 45 |
Journal of Yüzüncü Yıl University Graduate School of Social Sciences is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY NC).