While reading the book The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore many readers come to find out why Wes states, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” (Moore Introduction). What Wes is saying here is that both Wes Moore 's have a very similar life they shared the same name, they both lived in Baltimore with similar histories, yet they had two complete different lives. This is not to say that I agree with the statement, but rather disagree to an extent. I believe that even after being from the same town, having the same name, and both not having fathers at a young age Wes Moore had a more fortunate life that the other Wes Moore. This being because Wes didn’t have a father because Wes had so much support from his loved ones. After Wes’s father passed, his mother couldn 't handle being alone in the house she shared so many memories in without him anymore. So she called her mom, and they arranged to move in with her mom back in New York. Wes not only had his sisters, and mother but he also had his grandparents. Wes had strict rules to follow, he had to be home when the street lights came on, and as soon as he hears any gunfire or anything his grandmother considered foolishness he was to immediately come home. Wes was taught right from wrong, and got in trouble when he did wrong but soon learned from his Yet, the other Wes Moore had come across his mothers weed stash one day while looking for some change in her room. To me this is just unacceptable, Mary is held responsible in becoming a role model to her children. She should be showing her kids how drugs are bad, not be using them. The other Wes Moore came home drunk one afternoon after a day full of adventure with his friends, they had been smoking pot and drinking alcohol. As soon as Wes entered the house Mary 's boyfriend at the time noticed something was up. Other than Mary questioning him she walked into his room and asked how he felt, and while laughing made a commented saying “Well, at least now you know how bad it feels” (Moore 62). Mary should have got him in trouble other than thinking it was a laughing matter. She wasn 't a great mother and some readers may challenge my view by insisting that Mary didn 't know how to raise kids at such a young age. Mary has no excesses she should have wanted better for hew kids and done whatever she could to keep them out of trouble. If someone truly loved their kids and want them to stay out of trouble they would do anything in their will to do
“Wes was so confused. He loved and respected his brother. Tony was the closest thing Wes had to a role model. But the more he tried to be like his brother, the more Tony pushed back.” (72) Wes then got his girlfriend pregnant 4 times and dropped out of school to help out with her. With multiple arrests for shooting someone and drug dealing. Tony his "so called role model" helped Wes rob a jewelry store and they were convicted for murdering Sergeant Prothero along the way. Tony's motives were right but he never really got across to Wes with leading him in the right direction. Tony tried to push Wes away from the drug game but Wes was to drawn to it.
They all immediately judged him because of his race. Wes knew he would not be able to fit in with the other kids even if he tried. Had Wes tried to include himself in friend groups at school, he would have to face rejection as well as embarrassment. Wes did not want to be chagrined and so he separated himself from the other kids by having an interest in Ms. Tretheway. The narrator did not agree with Wes when he said that Ms. Tretheway "was so beautiful". The narrator was one of the bystanders who watched the other kids tease Wes, occasionally joining in as well. Everyone excluded Wes throughout high school and by then he accepted that but when he gets voted as best all-around student he admits that he "was so happy [he] could believe anything.” (Buckler, 115) Wes believed that he was finally getting included with the others, he had hope and anticipation. In the end, he was let down and avoided which led to the incident in the basement. Not everyone finds it hard to fit in but those who do may struggle with the pressures of society for
The mothers, Mary and Joy, push their sons to achieve an education in different ways. Mary, Other Wes’s mother, enrolls him in public schools and expects him to take control of his life and work hard. This arrangement does not work favorably; Other Wes stopped attending to school two years before he graduated high school. He eventually received his GED from Job Corps. On the other hand, Wes’s mother, Joy, enrolls her son in private school to avoid the public schools in the area. First, she sends him to Riverdale. Wes hates it there. He got suspended numerous times and let his grades slip. He was in charge of his own fate at Riverdale, but he botched it up. Finally, Joy sends Wes to military school. He is given a second chance, but “by the end of the fourth day at military school, [Wes] had run away four times” (90). Eventually, after an abrupt phone call, he agrees to stay. He embraces military school, and thrives there. He has the chance to escape Other Wes’s fate, which even Wes agree could have been his own. He may have had no choice but to leave to military school, but his success there is up to him. While Wes was sent away to avoid the ghetto’s problems, Other Wes is right at the center of
Convict Wes went to school, then he could not have ended in the drug game then prison. These
The Other Wes Moore was a book written by Wes Moore about two boys who were very similar growing up. They both grew up with out their dad and in a rough lifestyle. The two boys lived in same rough Baltimore neighborhoods with activity going on always. The difference is one grew up to have a successful life and the other is spending the rest of his life lock up as a convicted murderer.
However, this only opened the door to a significant social change in his life. He, consequently, became involved in the life of dealing drugs that his mother and brother strived so arduously to prevent him from starting. Wes was arrested several times throughout his life starting at the early age of eight, when he attempted to stab another kid. He was also arrested for selling drugs and again for the attempted murder of a man. Another significant change for him was when he went to Job Corps, and was academically successful. Unfortunately, the reality of the world he left behind; such as, supporting his kids drove him to return to dealing, and later ...
The factors that surround us when we are young create the people we become in the future. Usually the people and area that surround us influence the people we become in the future. If we grow up in an area with lots poverty crime and with parents that rarely give a care what we are doing with our lives. We are expected to probably lead a life of crime and violence. Unlike a person who is born in a well adjusted place with parents who concerned for their future are expected to lead better lives. We see in the book The Other Wes Moore the path both men end up taking is because of the many factors that influenced their lives during their young age. One huge factor was their mothers. Each were similar that they both raised their kids as single
“I guess it’s hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances” (Moore 67). This is a powerfully central theme to the book The Other Wes Moore, written by Wes Moore. For the two men this book is about, it all begins with a wide-open future. The mothers that gave birth to them and the influences they had, along with their own powerful choices, sealed their fate . People don’t ever stop growing or improving and the two Wes Moore’s are no different. Throughout their lives, they are constantly changing and in some places calling the shots. One chose correctly, and one did not.
...se. he reassured her that he had got the confusion from Frank and would have him moved to jail the next morning. This situation was conflicting because Wes has to be afraid of his own brother in order to keep the interest of everyone else in mind. It was an Individual vs. Community paradigm. The family being the community and the individual being Frank.
The story of two men growing up in the same neighborhood with similar backgrounds with the same name and eerily similar circumstances that leads and ultimately has each character ending up in very different places in life. Taking completely different paths to their futures is the setting of this story “The Other Wes Moore”. The way a person is shaped and guided in their developmental years does undoubtedly play a huge role in the type of person they will become in life. The author Wes does a good job of allowing you the ability to read this story and the circumstances surrounding the character his mother joy played such an important role in his success, while comparing the roll of Mary the other Wes’s mother. Both boys grew up with strong, hardworking black women in their lives and yet it still allowed for two completely different journeys. I think the lack of fathers and having not so good male role models was also a contributing factor.
Wes (the author) has a family who wants to see him succeed. Although Wes didn’t know his father for long, the two memories he had of him and the endless stories his mother would share with him, helped guide him through the right path. His mother, made one of the biggest effects in Wes’s life when she decided to send him to military story, after seeing he was going down the wrong path. Perhaps, the other Wes’s mother tried her best to make sure he grew up to be a good person, but unfortunately Wes never listen. His brother, Tony was a drug dealer who wish he could go back in time and make the right decisions and he wanted Wes to be different than him. He didn’t want his brother to end up like him and even after he tried everything to keep Wes away from drugs, nothing worked and he gave up. As you can see, both families are very different, Wes (the author) has a family who wants him to have a bright future. Most importantly, a family who responds fast because right after his mother saw him falling down the wrong hill she didn’t hesitate to do something about it. The other Wes isn’t as lucky, as I believe since his mother already had so much pressure over keeping her job and her son Tony being involved in drugs. Same thing with Tony, he was so caught up in his own business that no one payed so much attention to
Therefore, one of the two Wes Moores became a prisoner, convicted for robbery and murder. And the other one is Rhodes scholar and become a famous author. Even though they grew up in the same environment, but there is a big difference: the author Wes’s parents graduated from college and well educated, while the other Wes’s parents even didn’t finish school. So, according to the book, the most significant effect in the two Wes Moores lives is the education level of their parents.
Meanwhile the other Wes tried to get his life straightened out when he was with Cheryl and became a father of four children. The author illustrates this point when he states “listening to my mother talk about sacrifice, I had no idea what my grandparents had given up.” Meaning the five minute phone call with his mom changed the way he thought of military school. Also, when Wes had told Levy “I’m done, man” and he added on to say “I want to get out. Do something different with my life.” That’s when Levy introduced him to job corps and Wes agrees to join the program. The significance of the phone call is to show that Wes realized that it was selfish of him to not stop and think of how his mom came up with the money to put him in military school and asking her to take him out but, then his mom explained him that his grandparents had other plans for the future but they gave it up because they believed the school will change Wes. The other Wes Moore changed for his children, he hated the
In their respective life journey, both Wes Moores often found them facing with some hard choices or decision to make or standing at a crossroads of life change without knowing which way to turn. Therefore, “for all of us who live in the most precarious places in this country, our destinies can be determined by a single stumble down the wrong path or a tentative step down the right one” (Moore xiv). During their early childhood, both Wes Moores struggle at school and had troubles with the law. However, for the author Wes Moore, attending the military school was the biggest turning point in his life. Aware of his mother’s determination, his family’s sacrifice, and encouragement from classmates and instructors as well as the influence of role models, the author Wes Moore finally made up his mind that he wanted to succeed in the military school. At the end, the author Wes Moore fulfilled his dream and did well academically from then on. On the other hand, the other Wes Moore had tumbled on a series of missteps along the road: dropping out of school, getting involved with drug trade, committing violent crimes, and being a father of four when he was so young and immature. Even though there was a time when he tried to reinvent himself: joining the Job Corp, getting a high school diploma, and finding some decent jobs, the reality and his making-quick-money mentality eventually brought him back to the original path with no return. At last, by committing an armed robbery that left a police officer dead, the other Wes Moore irreversibly drove himself to the dead end of life. Obviously, based on their early life experiences, both Wes Moores would have gone the same route to failure. Nevertheless, at some critical points of their lives, the author Wes Moore made some good choices with intervention and guidance of good people while the other Wes Moore lost his footing under undue
A child will not change their behavior if their parent does not show disapproval and does something about their behavior we they act out. With both of these combine, it made Wes’s opportunities starting from a young age, very slim of being successful. Growing up, Wes Moore had his mom and family around him to support him and when things got bad, his mom sent him to military school as a disciplinary action. This saved Wes from further becoming a bad kid because there, he learned discipline and respect. On the other hand, the other Wes Moore was off selling drugs and doing other bad things while his only influence was his brother. The other Wes Moore was so involved in his profits from selling drugs that he even sold to a cop even though he knew that he was undercover (Moore 112). Wes took this chance because he was so desperate for the twenty dollars he was going to receive, he didn 't care what the consequences were. I believe that if the author Wes Moore never went to military school, that he would have turned out just like the other Wes Moore. Weich from Lincoln County Jail stated that when investigating the jail, inmate were forced to garden as their “hardwork” this was supposed to change them. The inmates just had to be on good behavior and they were then able to garden while in jail (Weich). The point of going to jail is to be disciplined and learn and grow as a