Maya Angelou's series of seven autobiographies collectively capture the various sections of her fascinating and turbulent life. The Heart of a Woman (1981), her fourth autobiography, is an account of the beginning of her writing career, her encounters with several political figures, her active involvement in the civil rights movement, and her relationship with her son Guy. “Maya Angelou focuses on the subgenre of biography as a vital tool of self-expression on a personal and collective level” (Kolawole 190). Through a description of her personal experiences and relationships, Angelou manages to bring out a series of social, political and cultural issues that pervade the environment that forms the backdrop to her memoirs. This particular volume is perhaps the most political of her autobiographies as it touches on the period of her life when she was an active member of the Civil Rights Movement and was also involved in the African struggle for freedom. However, the text differs from a historical text in that it manages to focus on the author's personal experiences and relationships throughout the socio-political turmoil. According to Mary Kolawole, "(b)ying attention to her personal experience, Angelou, like many African American writers, uses individual reality to give expression to collective consciousness" (190). The emphasis is on the experience of motherhood, especially that of a black mother. While almost all of her works undoubtedly have feminist tendencies, the type of feminism explored by Angelou is more identifiable as a "womanist" approach. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The term "feminism" was coined by Alice Walker who describes a womanizer as "A black feminist or feminist of color" (xi), and on her relationship to feminism, she says: “Womanist refers to feminist as the purple is lavender” (xii). This suggests the inclusion of the terms "feminism" and "feminism" under the same collective umbrella. The term is the result of the belief that "feminism" does not include the perspectives of black women, suggesting the need to create a specific type of feminism that is inclusive and focused on black women. He tends to prefer “the culture of women, the emotional flexibility of women, and the strength of women… Committed to the survival and integrity of whole people, male and female” (Walker xi). It describes Black women's relationships with the men in their lives, as well as other women, and often touches on the ways Black women support and empower Black men. It does not necessarily represent any political views and values ​​other than honoring and appreciating the strength and experiences of Black women. According to Deborah King, “the connotation of 'women' within the black community became positive, affirming and affirming the feminine value of adult qualities such as skill, independence, creativity, love, and strength” (1486). Thus, Maya Angelou's The Heart of a Woman, which explores the experiences of womanhood, strength, and resilience that helped her overcome a bewildering and complex life as a Black woman, can pass as a notable womanist text. Furthermore, Angelou herself perfectly fits Alice Walker's description of a womanizer who “loves music. Loves dance. Love the moon. Love the spirit. Loves love, food and plumpness. He loves the fight. Love people. She loves herself. Regardless” (xii). The novel unfolds as the multifaceted story of a woman who grapples with her career, motherhood, her love life, as well as the socio-political issues of her time. In the book Angelou describes her journeyin her transition from her singing career to writing, her tangled and perplexing relationship with her son, her dynamic love life and difficult marriage, her involvement in the civil rights movement under Martin Luther King Jr., and her move to Egypt and Ghana, exploring his legacy. In the memoir, Angelou begins her narrative in 1957, when the United States “moved forward, backward, up, down, and often in concentric circles” (Angelou 1), when the relationship between blacks and whites was “a labyrinth of contradictions” (Angelou 1). The beginning already prefigures the rather political vein that will run through the entire text. It manages to serve as a remarkable historical text that touches on the most significant social and political events of the time, and the socio-political atmosphere is vividly perceivable through the lens of the author's experience. But aside from this focus on the social level, his personal and individual experiences took precedence, distinctively identifying the book as a personal memoir rather than a historical document. Angelou's relationship with her son is perhaps the most important, "the heart" of the memoir. His son, Guy Johnson, was coming of age during the time this volume is set. With the beginning of the American civil rights movement that called for a particular type of child education, motherhood for Angelou was intense and complex. Although Guy himself is not depicted as a difficult child or in need of any kind of special nurturing, there was still a certain level of anxiety in Angelou, maternal anxieties that were at once universal and uniquely African-American. Some anxieties such as the one over the absence of a father figure in her child's life prove to be universal as it is a common phenomenon among single mothers. When developing romantic bonds, she always seeks a possible father figure for Guy in addition to her own personal satisfaction. This need she feels allows her to endure the alienation and detachment she feels when Guy develops a friendship with her husband Vus and no longer depends on her as before. When she detects this change in their relationship, she simply says, “I longed for our old closeness and her dependence, but I knew she needed a father, a male image, a man in her life” (Angelou 238). By putting aside his own selfish desire and possessiveness towards his son, he is able to accept what he believes is in his son's best interest. The power of motherhood and the reflection of maturity and emotional strength on the part of the womanist author prove significant. A mother's intense sense of responsibility is highlighted when she recalls the accident her family had when Guy was seven, and laments with self-blame: “We didn't cause the accident… But I was the mother , the most powerful person in the world." his world that could have made everything better… I could have prevented the accident” (264). Motherhood, in Angelou's case, motivates and pushes her to strive for seemingly impossible and unattainable qualities, consequently resulting in self-realization and awareness of potential. As a black mother, Angelou is faced with a very complicated responsibility in which she must make her son aware of the real condition of limitations resulting from the color of his skin, but at the same time encourage him not to submit to racial prejudices. According to Angelou, “the black mother perceives destruction at every door, ruin at every window, and even she herself is not beyond her suspicions… within the house, she must demonstrate a right of command which in every moment, a knock on the door or a phone ring can be exposed as fake. Faced with these contradictions, it must provide ablanket of stability, which warms but does not suffocate, and must tell her children the truth about the power of white power without implying that it cannot be questioned” (44). Achieving the balance between instinctive maternal care and the need to allow them to reach maturity and awareness seems to be a difficult task for the author. Despite these difficulties, she manages to raise a mature young man who, towards the end of the volume, speaks of his desire for his mother to “grow up” (Angelou 345). This role reversal serves as a pleasant reminder of the impressive work the author did in raising her son despite the turbulent conditions of their lives and despite his coming of age in the midst of social upheaval. This relationship between black mother and son adheres to the characteristics of feminism, both in the aspect of its preference for feminine culture through motherhood, and in its representation of a black woman's relationship with a black man, the former supporting and empowering per second. This volume brings out the author's strength also through her professional career and her political activism. Despite never receiving a proper education and always pursuing her career in the field of performance art, Angelou manages to be a resourceful worker and a driven writer. As the book discusses the beginning of Angelou's writing career, we see that even literary icons as great and prolific as the author herself had initially faced harsh criticism. With astonishing courage combined with an intense awareness of his cultural heritage, he speaks of his determination: “If I ended up in defeat, I would at least try. Trying to overcome was an honorable black tradition” (52). Even after her writing was not so well received by members of the Harlem Writers' Guild, she did not give up and had now earned a position in the pantheon of American literature. The remarkable resilience and determination he reflects can be held responsible for the success and recognition he has received. Even when it came to political activism she was determined and courageous. Although she is not familiar with the type of work or knows how to type, she accepts the position offered to her as coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Black solidarity, a significant component of feminism, is also used repeatedly, serving as a weapon against the atrocities of white-imposed racial subjugation. When he attended the Harlem church where Dr. King made an appearance, he noted that those in the church were “one people, indivisible in the sight of God, responsible to and for each other” (Angelou 69). Here he expresses his belief to defend this unity against the white community's hatred towards them, he proposes, "we the most hated, must take hatred into our own hands and, with the miracle of love, transform disgust into love ” (Angelou 69-70).Angelou explored the growing interest in African culture that was prevalent during the civil rights movement. Partly as an act of awareness and affirmation of her ancestral roots, she marries an African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make, but this act proves unsatisfying and complicated as the husband turns out to be a womanizer and economically irresponsible. Her complete endorsement of African values ​​in marital administration is also problematic as the author is left no room for self-affirmation and awareness as she plays "the cared for housewife," "the role that marriage had imposed on her" (261 ). . Although she tried with courage and determination to take on the role of the traditional African wife as housekeeper, cook and lover in homage to her own.