Maya Angelou Questions

2. Maya Angelou's work celebrates "the universal human power to triumph over adversity." Do you personally have that power? How do you know? When have you had to use it? Or when have you observed someone else use that power?

I believe that I have the power to overcome adversity. I can overcome difficulties by stopping what I’m doing and thinking about it. I with usually use it when working on a school project or assignment. I like to stop what I’m doing and think through everything that I’m doing and correct any errors. I will go over what I have and go through it again.

4. Angelou and many others suggest that dreams "tell the truth" about us. Do you think dreams reveal things about us that we may not realize or that others don't see? Can you recount a dream that revealed something about you that you were surprised, ashamed, terrified, etc. by?

I believe that the dreams that we remember reveal something about ourselves. The dreams that we remember like dreams we have about someone else or dreams we have about ourselves. For some people a dream about love can show to them that the love that they feel towards someone is a true love. For others it may be a dream about something they do. The dreams that I do remember I have come to realize that I will have a déjà vu moment sometime in the future from them. I once had a dream about the next day at school and being bullied in my first class. During that school I was bullied not only in the first class but in the same way as in the dream. I was then able to stop them from bullying me by remembering that dream and changing what I was doing in it. Dreams like these have helped me through school and life by realizing bad and good things that are going to happen and fixing them.

6. Angelou says she is comfortable using six or seven languages; has spoken at one time or another as many as twelve, and has been a teacher in at least three. Are you comfortable using another language? Which languages would you like to be fluent in? Why those? Or do you think speaking English is good enough because you live in America and that’s all we should need to live here? Why?

I believe that if I were more fluent in another language that I would feel more comfortable speaking it than the English language. I would like to be fluent in Japanese. Mainly for the reason that many shows that I tend to watch are in Japanese and I would love to just be able to understand them without having to read the entire. I would also love to go live in Japan and immerse myself in their culture. It would be fun learning about Japan by living in it. For where I live now the English language is good enough as I don’t really need a second language to live here. If there were more people here to talk too in another language I could see the use of knowing another language.

10. Angelou quotes Nathaniel west as saying, “Easy reading is damned hard writing” and says writing is “just hard work, you know?” Do you agree with this? What is easiest and hardest to you about writing? Is writing hard work?