In the excerpt “Mrs. Flowers,” Maya Angelou demonstrates one powerful one person can have a life changing effect on someone. Angelou expertly uses her experience from her childhood to target readers from many different backgrounds, simply to give them a sense of hope even when there is none. This excerpt was written in a way to not only give her readers hope and confidence, but also for her relatives and friends, to show that she didn’t and wouldn’t let one incident define the rest of her life. Ethos is defined as credibility from the author and from personal experience; Angelou proves just how credible she is. The author uses ethos in the story when the character explains what Mrs. Flowers meant when she called their time together, “my lessons