How does the author portray the oppression of women in the novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland?

Walker powerfully depicts the oppression of black women by abusive husbands in the sufferings of Margaret and Mem Copeland. Both struggle to keep their marriages and families intact, and both are used as scapegoats by husbands who project onto them their own selfhatred. Hope for strengthening black family structures is offered in Walker's portraits of increasingly strong female characters. Women in the novel become more independent and more complex with each successive generation. Whereas Margaret submitted passively to Grange's brutality, Mem fought Brownfield and asserted her right to fulfill her dreams. In Ruth Copeland, the youngest daughter of Brownfield and Mem, Walker creates a young woman equipped with the inner strength to break out of the cycle of abuse that killed her mother and grandmother. Through the relationship between Grange and Ruth, Walker suggests that paternal love and fostering, along with financial resources, can empower African-Americans. But in Grange's question about Judge Harry—"What about that Judge"—he condemns the entire racist social order, implying that it must be reformed before African-American men and women can live together with freedom, dignity, and love.