In the book “The Other Wes Moore,” Intrinsic factors play a significant role in determining the Wes Moore’s success. This narrative explains the intrinsic challenges that both Wes Moore’s had to overcome in order to succeed and it explains how the people surrounding them, the was main reason that the author was led to a successful life and the other Wes Moore was led to failure.
Based on both Wes Moore’s decisions it took them a while to realize the importance of their future, although the other Wes Moore had a tough time learning from his past mistakes. By the time the author was in military school, he understood that his previous choices weren’t beneficial and his actions were the reason why Joy made the choice to send him off to
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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
The book basically talks about two young boys both with the name Wes Moore, who grew up in Baltimore and in the same neighborhood but never knew of each others existence. This is until the author Wes Moore, the one who escaped his rough childhood in Baltimore and the Bronx, began meeting with the other Wes Moore and questioning him who is spending his life in prison because of attempted murder. The author Wes Moore who managed to escape his situation growing up had a much more supportive mother who moved him away from Baltimore and continued to push him to get an education. He lived in the Bronx for sometime with his grandparents and mother, and attended a well renowned school in the Bronx. His mother worked several jobs in order for him to
In the high criminal neighborhood where the other Wes lived, people who live there need a positive role model or a mentor to lead them to a better future. Usually the older family members are the person they can look up to. The other Wes’s mother was not there when the other Wes felt perplexed about his future and needed her to support and give him advises. Even though the other Wes’s mother moved around and tried to keep the other Wes from bad influences in the neighborhood, still, the other Wes dropped out of school and ended up in the prison. While the author Wes went to the private school every day with his friend Justin; the other Wes tried to skip school with his friend Woody. Moore says, “Wes had no intention of going to school. He was supposed to meet Woody later – they were going to skip school with some friends, stay at Wes’s house, and have a cookout” (59). This example shows that at the time the other Wes was not interested in school. Because Mary was busy at work, trying to support her son’s education, she had no time and energy to look after the other Wes. For this reason, she did not know how the other Wes was doing at school and had no idea that he was escaping school. She missed the opportunities to intervene in her son’s life and put him on the right track. Moreover, when the author was in the military school, the other Wes was dealing drugs to people in the streets and was already the father of a child. The incident that made the other Wes drop out of school was when he had a conflict with a guy. The other Wes was dating with the girl without knowing that she had a boyfriend. One night, her boyfriend found out her relationship with the other Wes and had a fight with him. During the fight, the other Wes chased the guy and shot him. The guy was injured and the other Wes was arrested
The path of Wes, the felon, was a life filled with drugs, anger, and reckless choices. His mother and brother were the major influences in his life. During his youth he watched his brother, Tony, deal drugs, get shot and control a section of the neighborhood. His brother being the major male influence in his life, Wes idolized him. Meanwhile Wes was struggling with school, and in an attempt to give him a better chance his mother moved them to a different neighborhood.
“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 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.
The author and Wes Moore faced very similar environmental changes and challenges. The differences that resulted these two on opposite ends of the spectrum was their family’s influence upon their decisions. The actions of each Wes Moore’s mothers had a great effect in their lives. The author Wes’s mother, as well as his grandparents, played a key role in his success as an adult. The sacrifices of time and the minimal amount of extra money she made went towards the author and his other siblings which ensured him the best educational environment. Without his mother, Joy, a college graduate herself, who “raised all of her children together, and she worked multiple jobs to send all of her children to private school” Wes could not have aspired to be where he is today (Moore 48). She persisted with him by laying down her expectations for him to excel in ...
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
When imagining school, some people look at this as a chance to increase the educational career of one, while others may not. But when looking at Military school, horror comes into mind, and there is no escaping from that. Wes had just started military school, and he does not like it whatsoever. He even tries to escape, though, the directions given to him by the Sargent were fake. This is a chance for Wes to change his life, and he needs to stay on track. Wes says, "By the end of the fourth day at Military School, I had run away 4 times. I had heard that there was a station somewhere in Wayne where I could catch a train that would take me to Thirteenth Street Station in Philadelphia....I had the entire plan set. The only thing I could not figure out was how to get to this train station in Wayne" (Moore 90). This quote supports the theme that in which it shows that one must stay true to decisions made or given to him. Through it all, one must stay strong, and face what comes it's way. Therefore, one must stay strong, even if the situation is not suiting, because success will be
Moore quote including said, “It was a different psychological environment, where my normal expectations inverted, where leadership was honored and class clowns ostracized” (96). The quote The (author) Wes Moore seen in his Military School that the lower freshmen was respects the higher ranking. The (author) was very amazed that in his military school the students were respect their superior and follow their command and their honor code rules to obey by. At the Military School teaches (author) Wes Moore about learn the discipline, leadership, and teamwork. The military do care about the (Author) Wes Moore successes. The (author) Wes Moore have the stronger mentor giving him the responsibility of their trust on him to force him to change his bad behavior that impact his teenage and adulthood
The Other Wes Moore is a book talking about two different men with the same name,Wes Moore. They were both raised up by a single mother and live in the same decaying city, Baltimore, where there are surrounded by drug and alcohol. However, the author Wes Moore’s parents completed their education and have a good job while his grandparents also were well-educated. But the other Wes Moore’s parents didn’t graduate from college, his mother tried to get the scholarship but failed, and his father left high school and don’t have a job either. This two Wes Moores both grew up with their mother. The author Wes’s father died for disease while the other Wes’s father left his family. With this situation, they went to the same direction, being absent from
In chapter 5 of The other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, both protagonist are encountered with being taken out of their environment. In the 5th chapter the author Wes was sent to military school and the other Wes is arrested after shooting a “jump off's cousin”(105-106). For Wes being taken out of his loose Bronx environment and being put into a strict military environment drove him crazy. The insanity Wes faced can be attributed to the apparent structure the military school had, unlike the Bronx. Like the title of chapter 5 both Wes and the other Wes are lost beyond belief, although they are both lost they both have an opportunity to grow from an change in environment.
The two ultimate choices to send him to a private and a military school, plus Moore’s own choice to not pursue a career in the NBA but to stay in school were three powerful choices that shaped him to become the man he is today. On the other hand, Moore’s destiny is one that is striking differently from the other Wes Moore’s destiny. As previously stated, these two boys who share a similar identity and started in the same circumstances ended up in two discrete places, due to the decisions they made, and what their fates had in store for
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
They both grow up in a similar environment and was raised by a single mother. Author Wes can see how the other Wes 's life went and saw that there were Decisions and actions that were taken that made them made them into the people they become. American people are always talking about “keeping up with the Jones 's” and “the grass is greener on the other side”, and most people don 't ever know about a person who shared their name and grew up in the same environment. So it makes sense that if a person becomes aware of a person like that, who shared a name and grew up in the same environment, they want to know more about what that person 's life was
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