Blog 7/Final Paper Progress

Information for Final Paper

By Andrea Williams

I have chosen Maya Angelou’s Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now, as the subject of my final paper. This collection of essays covers a range of topics. In one essay, “In All Ways a Woman,” Angelou writes about how women must be both tender and tough. In another essay, “Passports to Understanding,” Angelou talks about the need for humans to place an emphasis on our similarities instead of focusing on our differences. In other words, we must understand and accept other cultures to become better overall human beings and friends. In her essay, “Style,” she writes that style is not something to be copied; it is something to be developed. Taken together, these essays demonstrate the strength and power of women.

Angelou wrote these essays, and other works, without apologizing for the work. In other words, she writes about black women, unflinchingly, as a way to document the black female narrative. Her works have been noted for being “aesthetically pleasing.” In Journey she balances both the African American and female experience without denigrating men or other races. In these so-called “wisdom pieces,” she writes about the total human experience. These types of writings will be the focus of my paper.

Angelou, the writer, professor, and poet, has created several literary works, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, And Still I Rise, On the Pulse of Morning, and Phenomenal Woman.

Angelou, who died earlier this year at the age of 86, was a professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Another claim to fame was her recitation of the poem, “On the Pulse of Morning,” at President Clinton’s Inauguration in 1993.

Research and Sources, to date

1. Elsie B. Washington, offering the perspective of author and reviewer
2. Random House, Angelou’s publisher
3. Wake Forest University, where she was the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies
4. Her collection if essays, Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now