In her first novel, The Third of Grange Copeland, Alice Walker introduces a family of characters with a peculiar type of social interaction and the capacity to perform some of the cruelest acts against one another, including child neglect, infidelity and murder.  She takes the reader through the three lives of the main character, Grange Copeland.  Her ability to wrestle with the complex idea of generational stagnation due to certain socio-economic status circumstances that leave the impoverished with no personal agency to change the situation for their offspring is skillful.  Walker does an excellent job of examining how the theory of Social Reproduction can be applied in other areas besides its’ original educational context.  She does this through the similarities between Grange and his son Brownfield.    In the same story she weaves in a negation to Social Reproduction, which ultimately blames systems of oppression for all problems the oppressed face, by giving all her characters the burden of choice. Grange, in addition to being a part of the example advocating Social Reproduction, is the counter-narrative by ensuring Ruth, his granddaughter, is able to lead a different life than all the other Copelands.

In The Third of Grange Copeland, Walker is able to carve out three distinct lives for Grange Copeland, without reincarnation.  In each of his lives, Walker creates new space for Grange which also alters his attitude.  Walker’s ability to imagine Grange as a multifaceted character across space and time puts her squarely in the trajectory of Afrofuturistic writers.  Though her novel is set squarely in the Southern United States and New York City, there are elements of futurism and un-realism that are found in this griping novel.