Maya Angelou Questions

1.       Angelou says she doesn’t even like to talk about her bad dreams because talking about them “gives them too much power.” Do you think talking about bad dreams or bad news or other bad things (or feeding into the “drama” at school or in life) gives those bad things more power? When have you known this to happen?

I think that it depends on the dream whether or not you should talk about it. If it is so terrible that you get too upset when you talk about it, maybe it would be better if you didn’t. Although, if it is just a common nightmare, it might be more helpful than harmful to talk about it. When you say things out loud that scare you, they tend to lose their “scariness”. I know from personal experience that some dreams you just need to talk out. I think the only way you could really give bad dreams power would be to change the way you live your life because of the fear of your bad dreams.

2.       After going through a major trauma at age seven, Angelou didn’t talk for almost five years. Could you live this way? Do you talk too much or too little? What could you learn if you listened more and spoke less? How could you grow as a person by speaking more?

For me it depends on who I’m around, if I talk or not. If I am with my friends, such as Ashlia, then I will talk a lot, but if I’m around people I don’t really know, then I don’t talk as much. If I was around those kinds of people I think I could not talk for a little while, but I think eventually I would talk to someone. I don’t really think I talk too much, or too little. I’m more social at my house than at school, but that is just because I’ve lived my whole life with those people. I think that if I listened more I would learn more, but sometimes talking helps a lot more than just listening. It all depends on how you learn things. I also think that if I spoke more I could really grow as a person. I think I would be able to learn a lot more because I would talk more about the things I don’t understand at school. Overall though, I’m happy with the amount that I talk.

3.       Angelou says, “There’s a world of difference between truth and fact.” What do you think she means by that? Do you think the same?

Truth could be something that some one feels, where fact is something that is true to everyone and can be proven. I think she means that you can be telling the truth to your knowledge, but the things that you consider the truth might be a lie, not factual. A fact can be proven over and over again, such as, “My eyes are blue.” My eyes are blue and that can be proven over and over again. The truth is an opinion. The truth to one person could be a lie to another person. I completely agree with that statement because it’s the truth to me. Just like someone else could disagree, so it would be a lie to them. Everyone has different opinions, so there is a world of difference between what we think of as the truth and what an actual fact is.

4.       Angelou plays solitaire with a deck of cards to occupy her “small mind” when she is trying to get focused to write. What things do you do to occupy your small mind and in a positive way? What are your biggest distractions when you need to get something done?

I think to occupy my small mind I usually just listen to music. It really helps me find a place in my mind that I can remember things that I usually wouldn’t. I think it has to do with how I feel when I’m listening to a certain song; it just takes me back to when I felt a certain way. Like if I am listening to a sad song, it might take me back to when my first dog died and that whole night or something even farther back. When I need something to get done, my biggest distraction is probably my friends. They just know how to get me so off topic that I forget that I’m supposed to do something. That can be a terrible thing, because then my grades will suffer. I think no matter what, though, I will still get something done, if I really want to.

5.       Angelou mentions being told that “one can’t really learn after one is twenty-five.” Do you think the older you get the harder it is to try or learn new things? Or do you think being older means you’re more focused on what’s important and not distracted by things that keep you from learning?

I think it depends on what you are trying to learn if it’s better or worse to be older. I think that if you’re trying to learn something new like a language, it would be better to be younger. I think it would be better to be younger because you won’t know as much of your native language, the younger you are. I do agree with the statement that the older you are the more you’re focused on what’s important. The older you are is the easier it is to ignore drama and random thoughts.