New Directions by Maya Angelou

Question 1

What is the setting?

Answer 1

1903, Arkansas

Question 2

Who is the main character in the story?

Answer 2

Mrs. Annie Johnson

Question 3

How many children does she have? Are the girls or boys and how old are they?

Answer 3

2 infant sons

Question 4

What is the name of Annie’s husband?

Answer 4

William Johnson

Question 5

Describe Annie (physical traits)

Answer 5

• Over 6-feet tall
• Bony
• African American

Question 6

How did Annie make her plans?

Answer 6

Meticulously and in secret

Question 7

Where did William go?

Answer 7

Enid, Oklahoma

Question 8

What did William not tell Annie about?

Answer 8

He knew a minister in Enid with whom he could live with and had a friendly, unmarried daughter.

Question 9

How did Annie and William part?

Answer 9

Amicably.

Question 10

What did Annie keep and what did William take?

Answer 10

Annie kept the one-room house. William took most of the cash to carry himself to Oklahoma.

Question 11

What jobs could African Americans work during Annie’s time?

Answer 11

• Cleaning
• Child care
• General household labor

Question 12

Why did Annie not want to work the jobs available to her?

Answer 12

She did not want to leave her “precious babies” to someone else’s care.

Question 13

What food did she make?

Answer 13

Meat pies

Question 14

To whom did she sell her meat pies to?

Answer 14

Workers from the cotton gin and the lumber mill.

Question 15

How much did she sell her meat pies for?

include the prices for both fresh and cool-down pies

Answer 15

A nickel each for hot, fresh meat pies.

3 cents each for cooled-down pies.

Question 16

If she sold hot, fresh pies at the cotton gin on Monday, then she would…

Hint: Where would she appear Tuesday?

Answer 16

After the cotton gin on Monday, she would sell the remaining cool-down pies at the Lumber Mill for 3 cents each.

Then on Tuesday, she would appear at the Lumber Mill first to offer fresh, hot pies.

Question 17

When she felt certain that workers had become dependent on her…

Answer 17

She build a stall between the two hives of the industry and let the men run to her for lunch.

Question 18

What did Annie do one evening after she told herself she would cook?

Hint: How did she start her plan?

Answer 18

She carried stones in two, 5-gallon buckets and took them to the cotton gin (about 3 miles), discarding some rocks there. Then she walked to the lumber mill about 5 miles further down the dirt road to discard more rocks.

Question 19

She placed the stones in…

Answer 19

Two 5-gallon buckets

Question 20

How many miles was the cotton gin from Annie’s home?

Answer 20

3 miles.

Question 21

How many miles was the Lumber Mill from Annie’s home?

Answer 21

8 miles. In the text, it stated “5 miles further along the dirt road [from the cotton gin].

Question 22

What happened after she came back from carrying the stones to the cotton gin and lumber mill?

Answer 22

She worked into the early hours boiling chicken and ham.

Then she made the dough and filled the pastry (rolled-out) with meat.

Question 23

What did she do the following morning after she had slept?

Hint: What did she carry to the cotton gin after preparing the previous evening?

Answer 23

She carried her meat pies, lard, an iron brazier (a type of pot), and coals for a fire.

Question 24

When (what time of day) did she appear at the cotton gin to sell her meat pies?

Answer 24

Just before lunch, around noon

Question 25

What did the workers at the cotton gin bring for lunch?

Answer 25

• Pinto beans
• Biscuits and Crackers
• Onions
• Cans of Sardines

Question 26

What did she wrap her meat pies with?

Answer 26

Newspapers. (It soaked up the grease)

Question 27

What is an iron brazier and how does Annie use it?

Answer 27

A type of pot in which Annie cooked her meat pies in at the Cotton gin or Lumber mill.

It holds burning coals or charcoal as a heat source. Annie used hers to heat a pot of boiling fat to deep-fry her pies.

It is also difficult to carry and especially heavy.

Question 28

Define amicably

Answer 28

(adj.) in a friendly way.

Question 29

Define meticulously

Answer 29

(adj.) Very carefully and precisely

Question 30

Define Ominous

Answer 30

(adj.) Threatening.

Question 31

Define unpalatable

Answer 31

(adj.) distasteful; unpleasant

Question 32

In what type of situation did Annie find herself in at the beginning of the story?

Answer 32

• Two toddling sons
• A disastrous marriage
• Illiterate (cannot read or write)
• Very little money
• Could not add simple numbers
• African American

Question 33

What was William secret ?

Answer 33

He had a priest, with a home and woman ready for him in Enid Oklahoma

Question 34

What did William tell Annie regarding his plan to Oklahoma?

Answer 34

William told her that god was calling him to preach in Enid, Oklahoma.

Question 35

What had Annie done in relation to the path chosen for her?

Answer 35

Annie had indeed stepped off the path that she was chosen for her to cut herself a new path.

Question 36

What did Annie’s stall eventually become? What did it have or provide (list a few)?

Answer 36

It became a store, offering…

• Cheese
• Meal
• Syrup
• Cookies
• Candy
• Writing tablets
• Pickles
• Canned Goods
• Fresh Fruit
• Soft drinks
• Coal
• Oil
• Leather Soles for worn-out shoes

Question 37

What does each of us have the responsibility to do, according to what Maya Angelou has written?

Answer 37

Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled.”

Question 38

If our future road looms _______ or unpromising and the roads back are uninviting, what should we do?

Hint: Fill in the blank and answer the question.

Answer 38

*The blank is “ominous”

Answer: We should gather our resolve and, carrying only what’s necessary, step off the road into another direction.

Question 39

If the new road is ________, what should we do?

Hint: Fill in the blank and answer the question, based on the text.

Answer 39

*The blank is “unpalatable”

Answer: Without embarrassment, we must be ready to change.

Question 40

What are the 4 vocabulary words in this chapter?

Answer 40

• Amicably
• Meticulously
• Ominous
• Unpalatable