“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.
The Mothers in this book play a large influence in relation to importance of schooling for the two Wes Moore’s. AWM mother, Joy, believed in schooling to the hilt and was obsessed with her children receiving the best possible education out there. She sacrificed a lot for AWM to go to the same school that John F Kennedy went to, Riverdale. She "worked multiple jobs, from a freelance writer for magazines and television to a furriers assistant- whatever she could do to help cover her growing expenses" (Moore 47). This woman clearly cared a lot about school and wanted her son to be the best he could be. She was also a college graduate, and before her, her parents. On the other hand, the OWM mother, Mary, did not get a chance to finish college. Ironically she dropped out of Johns Hopkins. This was because her grant was taken away; this might have had an effect on her because she was nowhere near as obsessed with her children’s education as Joy was. It is heartbreaking because Mary grew up in a rough part of Baltimore and she, "Made a pact with herself at that moment: she would get her education and leave the neighborhood no matter what it took" (...
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...fortunately, whether the program wasn’t strong, or by his flaws, it did not work for him and he ended up back in the drug game. His biggest mentor in life was Tony, who initially tried to steer him clear, ended up being with him during his downfall.
At the end of the day, these men were similar and different in many ways. You come across several moments where things truly could have gone either way. They both could have ended up in each other’s shoes. Different things across their paths led them to different places, but their mothers and their own choices for themselves were a huge factor in what happened to them. However circumstances are only half the battle. If you want something in this world, you will make your own circumstances. AWM did, and OWN did not.
Works Cited
Moore, Wes. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2010. Print.
4.Wes Moore the author says that “I was taught to remember but never question. Wes was taught to forget, and never ask why.” Are these things different and if so how are they different? How do they point to differences in each of Wes’s upbringings? How might they connect to the differences in their outcomes?
The Other Wes Moore is a novel that shows the different paths of two different men, one successful and the other not so fortunate. Wes 1 was led by his brave, intellectual mother who impacted his life positively through small decisions. Wes 2 was led by his step- brother who had good intentions but never delivered or cared enough to help Wes through the obstacles of his life. Most of us are fortunate enough to choose who will impact our future but we have no control over our family members and whether they will help or hurt
Malcolm Gladwell once said, “...people who are outliers—in men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.” The author, Wes Moore, of the book, The Other Wes Moore, is considered an outlier through the “Gladwellian” lens based off of Gladwell’s book, Outliers. Wes’s story demonstrates objectives that define him as an outlier with the contributions of where he’s from, his advantages, and also his attitude over his ability. These contributions therefore define him as an outlier through the “Gladwellian” lens.
Mr. Moore’s father died from a medical complication that could have been prevented, while Wes Moore’s father was never around leaving him to be raised by his mother. The death of Mr. Moore’s father resulted in the family having to move to live with his grandparents in the Bronx. Mr. Moore’s mother tried everything, including putting him into an expensive school to keep him out of trouble and give him a chance for a successful life. Mr. Moore was still influenced by the neighborhood which lead to him being sent to military school, where he was able to understand that his actions had consequences, leading him to be the person that he is today. The other Wes Moore did not have the same fate. Although his brother, Tony, was a gang member, he constantly talked to Wes about how he could not get involved in gangs. “Tony felt his brother’s life could be saved”, but eventually Wes got involved with dealing drugs (Moore, 2011). After a robbery that resulted in the murder of two people, Wes was convicted of life in
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
“The state of Maryland had one of the highest graduation rates in the nation. Seventy-six percent of high school students who began high school in Maryland completed. In Baltimore County, the number was as high as 85 percent in some years. But in Baltimore City, where Northern High School was located, it was a dismal 38 percent” (Moore 108). In other words, on average, people who live in Baltimore City have a much lower education level than people who live in other cities. With these low high school graduation rates, people who live there have no motivation to succeed. This is how the author describes the education level of his neighborhood in the book The Other Wes Moore. The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore, is a book about two boys who have
“The Other Wes Moore” tells a story, two boys that has one name, but their lives are not
I think a major factor that made the lives of these lives of these two men so different was one got out of the street life while the other didn’t. Another major factor was when the author mom sent her son to military school. This changed him for the better because it took him away from the trouble he was getting in back at home.
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.
Throughout the book, The Other Wes Moore we learned about the lives of two young kids who unexpectedly share the same name but like everyone else have totally different life’s. This book explores the concepts that deal with a person’s path in life and gives us an understanding of which factors are the ones that greatly influence the type of person we will become. I believe that the factors that have a bigger impact on our life paths are; the environment we live in, our family and friends.
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.
Why have the two boys, with the same name and grew up fatherless in the similar poverty-stricken neighborhoods, developed into two dramatically different individuals: a Rhodes Scholar and a convicted inmate? While the book The Other Wes Moore goes to great length to answer the question profoundly, I also mull over just how and why the two Wes Moores have chosen their own paths to the opposed destines. According to the book, environment, family, education, others’ expectation, and opportunities are the primary factors contributing to the two Wes Moores’ failure and success. On the top of those factors, I find that the role models, the supports of their mothers, and the choices they made are surely worth
In “The Other Wes Moore”, by Wes Moore, the author takes the readers through his life growing up as well as the life of someone who was a stranger to him during his childhood but turned out to be a huge part of his life later on. His name was also Wes Moore and both he and the author grew up in poverty and did not have the best childhood. Although they grew up similarly, their adulthoods were the polar opposite. The author Wes Moore became the top in his class, a Rhodes scholar, and studied at Oxford University to later become very successful. On the other hand, the other Wes Moore is in prison for the rest of his life for a robbery and murder. How did these two grow up so similarly, yet had completely different adulthoods?
Education, environment and family factors can determined a person’s future life is success or failure. The other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates talks about two people with a same name and the environments they grew up were similar. However, the decisions they made let they ended up with a different life. The author Wes Moore became a successful political, and the other Wes Moore became a criminal in the end. The reason is the author Wes Moore made a correct choice to enrich his future life. The other Wes failed his life because he made a wrong choice. Overall, the author Wes Moore was more successful than the other Wes Moore because of the supporting family, and strong education.
Equally important are the standard my mother has set for us she has taught us that if you set your goals high then it gives you something to reach for. She also believes that you can do anything you set your mind on. We never went to the schools in our district because my mother wanted to enhance our education. She would say that just because you don’t have money doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have just as good of an education as the well to do. She sent us to Catholic School for a few years till the expense got to be too much and then switched us to a good school in Chandler. We are not allowed to get a grade lower than a C if we do we lose something that is of importance to us, till we bring our grade ba...