This paper is an examination of the fourth volume of Maya Angelou's autobiography, The Heart of a Woman, an account that covers five remarkable years of an astonishing, remarkable life. A single mother, struggling to support herself and her son through her singing career, Angelou begins her chronicle by fighting racial discrimination in order to rent a house in Los Angeles. There, she meets the legendary Billie Holiday during the final months of the singer's life. Her quest for fulfillment eventually leads her to New York City and the start of a career as a writer. She meets and joins the work of Martin Luther King, Jr., and begins to find her voice on paper and in the turbulent society of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her quest leads her to Broadway and, by the end of the book, to the beginnings of a new life in Africa, returning to personal and political struggles as she tries to define herself and her purpose in life.
The full scope of the events, celebrities, history, and drama that Maya Angelou is able to fit into half a decade of living is simultaneously breathtaking and intimidating. On the one hand, she is an ordinary woman, fighting against the terrors and oppression of discrimination and the need to support herself and her son, Guy. She is plagued with doubts about her ability to be both mother and father to Guy. She is unsure of her talents, her place in the world, and even what she wants to achieve with her life. She is tentative, questioning, petty, and insecure.
She is also astonishingly courageous and possessed of a remarkable ability to connect with important people and play significant roles in the flow of history in which she constantly finds herself. Inspired by a speech by civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., she is compelled to mount an ambitious cabaret show to raise money for his cause. The show is such a success that she finds herself offered the job of coordinating the New York o...