“Rather than show personal defeat in the face of depression”, Angelou states, “people should lift their faces and walk proud, for someday they will be rewarded for their hardships” (Anderson 26). Angelou’s ancestors (as well as many other
             Americans’) were those who were “sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare/Praying for a dream (Angelou 4). Growing up in a segregated, racist South where whole white communities once gathered outside elementary schools to scream racial slurs at black children, Angelou learned the value of personal strength in seemingly hopeless times (Cudjoe 23). “History, despite its wrenching pain,” Angelou suggests,” cannot be unlived, but if faced/with courage, need not to be lived again (Angelou 4).” This courage an
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