How does Angelou’s adult perspective help you to understand the long-term effect that Mrs. Flowers had on her life? Cite evidence.

As an adult, Angelou recognizes Mrs. Flowers as a mentor. They may not have worked together for long, but it was Mrs. Flowers who introduced Angelou to the power of written language and the spoken word.
Before meeting Mrs. Flowers, and after her rape, Angelou wasn't speaking, period. Mrs. Flowers got her talking, reading, and writing again, setting Angelou's life on an extraordinary course that includes participating in the Civil Rights Movement alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, writing bestselling books, and being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Of course, when she was a kid, Angelou simply wanted to be Mrs. Flowers. Mrs. Flowers was graceful and ladylike, with the formal education that Angelou's own mother lacked—and that Angelou desperately wanted. As a child, Angelou found her own mom embarrassing because of of her lack of schooling, and it wasn't until she was an adult that Angelou realized just how similar her mother and her mentor were.