I Am Wes Moore The Other Wes Moore illustrates the challenges of two young black men who grew up around the same neighborhood and who were raised in similar problematic circumstances. “The sudden moments of decision where our paths diverge and our fates are sealed,” Wes Moore, the author stated in his book (Moore 6). Even though parts of their lives reflected one another, their upbringings and decisions directed them into extremely different lives. Everyone endures challenging times and struggles in their lives. People go through grief, addiction, loneliness, pain and all kinds of hardships through important points in their lives; these tragic and painful moments help mold an individual. The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore taught me that my own struggles and obstacles should not and cannot bring me down. In the introduction of the novel, Wes Moore says “…our destinies can be determined by a single stumble down the wrong path, or a tentative step down the right one.” This statement inspires me to never give up or surrender to paths that will eventually drag me down. Both, Wes Moore’s experienced death of a family member. Wes Moore, the author, experienced the death of his father what the young age of 3 years old. The inmate, Wes Moore, experienced the death of his grandmother also when he was young. The inmate’s father was still alive but he was not around. He did not have a father to depend on; his father chose not to be involved in his life, leaving both Wes Moore fatherless. The death of Wes Moore’s father and the inmate’s grandmother caused some disorder in each family. His mother became more stress because they started having more financial problems. The inmate’s mother lost support in her house and children af... ... middle of paper ... ...ry¬land College Football Hall of Fame. He completed a MLitt in International Relations from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 2004. He is a youth advocate, Army combat veteran, promising business leader and author. Baldwin 4 There are many issues that have led to the outcome in both. Even though both lived under very similar living conditions, their lives ended on the opposite side of the spectrum. Many times in our life we have faced challenging situations or difficulties, unfortunately there might not had been someone pushing or forcing you to go down a better path. We must learn to persevere through rough situation that we will battle in life. Wes Moore has helped me to see that my own struggles and obstacles should not and cannot bring me down; I need to keep pressing forward until I reach my goals that I have set for myself.
Wes Moore 1 definitely did not have the perfect life but his life had more positives than Wes Moore 2. Wes's family, friends and the military
The main conflict that Wes Moore faced was surviving and overcoming the troubles and influences in the environments he grew up in. Wes went through many experiences, several of them having to do with the worrying activities that went on around him everyday. This quote describes how all of the people living in the same places as Wes, struggled through the same things, what Wes described to be, “…the deadly streets, poverty, and the twin legacy of exclusion and low expectations.” (Moore 170) This means that the economic issues of these cities directly influenced the inhabitants’ life decisions and everyone had the same expectation for life, nothing good. With this expectation in mind, it is easy to see how these issues continued to affect the
1. Briefly describe each of the Wes Moore’s. Include information you believe is important to their life path (community, family life, big decisions, etc.).
In The Other Wes Moore, male figures, specifically male role models, play an important part both Wes Moores’ lives and and are eventually what make or break their futures.
It’s in these subtle differences that one can identify where it went wrong for the Other Wes Moore. The reason that there was no father figure is drastically different, the author's father died when Moore was
In a person’s life, one must overcome obstacles that have the potential to either negatively or positively impact their future. Whether it is a serious obstacle, such as being involved with drugs, or a minor obstacle, such as procrastinating an important essay for the night before it is due, the choices people make can influence the way they live their lives. In Wes Moore’s inspiring non-fiction book, The Other Wes Moore, two boys with the same name start off living a few blocks away from one another, but turn out to be completely different individuals. At first, they were both troublemakers, getting in trouble with the law. However, as time progressed, the author, Wes Moore, became a Rhodes scholar and quite successful, while the other Wes Moore was sentenced to life in prison. The difference between these two men was the surrounding influences that shaped their growth as people. In a person’s growth, the most important factors are a positive role model in a positive environment because a positive role model will provide the path to success and will aid that person in achieving prosperity.
In “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” written by Wes Moore the author writes about two boys growing up in Baltimore that share the same name and similar backgrounds but end up taking drastically different paths in life due to many varying factors. The author goes on to earn a college degree, become a Rhodes Scholar, a veteran and more while the “other” Wes cannot avoid the inevitable fate of dealing drugs and ultimately spends his life running from the police and in prison. This reflects how both Wes Moore’s became products of their environment as the way a person is shaped and guided in their developmental years does unquestionably play a large role in the type of person they will become as adults. A lot of elements come into play that help to determine a person’s success or failure, but at the end of the day the most important factors are family, education and opportunities.
While nonfiction has many sub-categories as a genre, most outline a person overcoming adversity to complete a goal. This idea is displayed in Richard Wright’s Black Boy, and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. Both books tell the story of an ultimate goal and the path to achieving this. Richard Wright and Chris McCandless both have virtuous and negative qualities, but they ultimately achieved their goals.
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
In The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, many people were able to grasp ahold of the author Wes’s life and help him get steered into the right direction. I feel that his mother, Joy, had the biggest impact on his life and meant the most for him. “When we moved to New York, she worked multiple jobs, from a freelance writer for magazines and television to a furrier’s assistant- whatever she could do to help cover her growing expenses (47).” Joy was a very hardworking woman. She worked not one but two jobs to cover her expenses, her kids expenses, and to help her parents out. She did this because she wanted what was best for her children. This later comes back to make Wes respect his mother for all that she has provided and sacrificed for him to get all that he did.
“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.
There are many ways in which both Wes’s have taken steps down the right and wrong paths. They may have lived and grown up in the same cities, but they had different support systems and different events that made their destinies contrast. Perhaps if the Other Wes had a better support system, he could have gone down a much different path. From the very beginning, neither Wes had a father figure. Author Wes’s father dying from acute epiglottitis (which Wes witnessed) , and the Other Wes’s father leaving the picture. There is an occurrence where the Other Wes does come across his father, and neither of them know who each other are.”The strong smell of whiskey wafted from his clothes and pores. Wes and the man returned each other’s quizzical looks.”(25)
This book is telling a story about two African American boys (Wes A and Wes P) who have the same name and grew up at same community, but they have a very different life. The author, Wes A, begins his life in a tough Baltimore neighborhood and end up as a Rhodes Scholar, Wall Streeter, and a white house fellow; The other Wes Moore begins at the same place in Baltimore , but ends up in prison for the rest of his life. Then why do they have the same experience, but still have a totally different life? I will agree here that environment (family environment, school education environment and society environment) is one of the biggest reasons for their different.
Everyday, there are teens that are putting themselves in unbearable situations. Wether if it is being influenced by others to do drugs or alcohol, both causes are very dangerous. Just as one thinks he is ok, standing away from those situations, is the time when danger will strike, and there will be just a few chances to get out. The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore is written about two boys with the same name growing up in similar situations. Both grow up to be surrounded by crime and substance abuse, and both do in fact have several chances to escape those holdbacks. Crime and substance abuse was common because of the locations that both Wes's grew up, and that was ghettos. In the book, The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, the author explores the
"...the effect is a tendency toward lighter complexions, especially among the more active elements in the race. Some might claim that this is a tacit admission of colored people among themselves of their own inferiority judged by the color line. I do not think so. What I have termed an inconsistency is, after all, most natural; it is, in fact, a tendency in accordance with what might be called an economic necessity. So far as racial differences go, the United States puts a greater premium on color, or better, lack of color, than upon anything else in the world."