Lessing exposes this deep injustice in social life Loneliness and Isolation Mary is first happy in town She works as a secretary and lives in a girls club But gossip about her age forces her to marry Dick Turner On Dick s poor farm she feels trapped The house is hot bare and empty She has no children no friends and cannot mix with black workers Dick is weak and silent Mary becomes bitter and nervous Isolation finally breaks her spirit and drives her toward Moses Loneliness is shown as a social disease in colonial farms Class Conflict among Whites Not all whites live the same Dick Turner is poor and struggles with his farm His wife Mary feels shame because of their poverty In contrast Charlie Slatter is a rich farmer He drives a big American car and controls the district He even once told Dick to buy a whip before a plough When Mary is murdered Slatter takes charge of everything He protects the image of white society The community does not pity Mary They only whisper A very bad business Lessing shows how poor whites like the Turners are hated by rich whites Women s Position in Society Mary s whole life shows women s limited role As a girl she watches her mother suffer in marriage Later she is independent in town But her friends gossip She s not fifteen any longer it is ridiculous Someone should tell her about her clothes She feels forced to marry Her marriage to Dick brings no love only poverty Society expects her to manage the farm and servants She cannot escape her role Her secret bond with Moses a black servant crosses the racial barrier Society cannot accept this Her murder is the final proof of women s powerless position Violence and Fear in Colonial Life Violence runs through every event Slatter once killed a native So he was fined only thirty pounds Black workers live under the whip Whites live in fear of native revolt Mary s murder by Moses is the climax of this fear Sergeant Denham and Slatter hide the truth They demand that Moses kill her for robbery But the narrator says White civilization which will never never admit that a white person and most particularly a white woman can have a human relationship whether for good or for evil with a black person This shows society is built on fear and rejection Doris Lessing s The Grass is Singing gives a clear picture of colonial society It shows racial division women s oppression class conflict loneliness and violence The novel is not just Mary Turner s story It is the story of a whole social system built on injustice Lessing warns that such a system cannot last It must break under its own cruelty