New Directions by Maya Angelou

Task 1

What made life so hard for Mrs. Annie Johnson in 1903?
- She couldn’t read and add simple numbers and she was also very dissatisfied with the marriage. Her husband left her with the house and the boys but no money.

How did her husband react when she told him that she was unhappy in their marriage?
- He found the marriage to be less than expected, and was hoping to leave to marry a younger woman and study religion.

What did Annie mean when she said: “I looked up the road I was going and back the way I come, and since I wasn’t satisfied, I decided to step off the road and cut me a new path”?
- She wasn’t satisfied with the life that she had, so she decided to change her life to the better, make her own and not everyone else’s.

How did she prepare for her new job?
- She worked into the early hours boiling chicken and frying ham. She made dough and filled the rolled-out pastry with meat. And then she went to sleep.

What did she do to succeed?
- She made the workers depend on her, so they could come to her instead of her coming to them every day. And that saved her from a lot of work.

Task 2

How does Annie fit into the American Dream?
- Because she managed to succeed according to ability and achievement.

In what ways do you think a person’s definition of the American Dream is affected by their ethnic background?
- I think that it is important to bring a little of your past life like religion and such into the American way of life, so that you bring your ethnic background with you.

Do you think the American Dream is attainable for everybody?
- No, I don’t think so. It is not attainable for people who are not on the run. They can come in to America as refugees/fugitives if they’ll be killed if they go back. It’s not as simple as going to America and start a life there. You have to be in contact with the government and they have to approve your application and that is a long process.

Which groups of people have had trouble attaining “The American Dream”?
- I believe the black people have had trouble attaining The American Dream and might still have trouble. There’s a lot of racism in America and the fact that they were slaves for the American people for several years hasn’t made it any easier.
- I also believe that Muslims has had a lot of problems trying to reach “The American Dream” because of the 11th of September. They get seen on as terrorists as a stereotype.