The Symbolic Representation of Male Violence on Women in Alice Walker’s The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970)

Abstract

Male violence on women, as a universal phenomenon, has ever occupied a large room and consideration in fiction. The causes of this violence, however, remain puzzling. Therefore, the present study investigated the fundamental factors generating men’s violence on women as they were represented through Alice Walker’s novel the Third Life of Grange Copeland. Hence, questions like what causes wife abuse in this novel, what link this violence has with gender discrimination against women, and to what extent man’s frustration affects his being violent on his woman, were raised. To approach these problematic issues, we hypothesised that men use violence on women as a way to exercise power and demonstrate masculinity. Applying a genderbased approach, we confirmed our aforementioned hypothesis while having discovered that man’s frustration does not justify his violent acts, and that male violence on female partners is rather founded on gender inequality which ensures unfair power distribution between males and females and supports men’s domination of and superiority to women. This study was basically structured into four chapters. The first chapter served as a theoretical framework that conducted the whole research. The second chapter tackled gender construction in the Third Life of Grange Copeland. The third chapter provided illustrative cases of this type of violence from the novel along with its bad effects. The fourth chapter suggested alternatives to help eradicate genderbased violence as they were conveyed throughout the novel