Wes Moore Character Analysis

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How is it possible that two men, coming from the same background, turn out to lead completely different lives? The choices and morals of the author Wes Moore was what made him prosper, but the own personal choices of the other Wes Moore made him lead a criminal life. This novel is about two boys who were born in the similar neighborhood, and raised up in difficult childhoods. Then how did the decisions that they made the author Wes become successful, whereas the other Wes ended up being in prison for the rest of his life? The situations in which they both grew up were same. A person’s success can be determined by the environment they have been placed in, education, role models and mainly by their; personal choices. “I sat back, allowing
His father was a drug dealer. “Who is this?” Mary smirked and rolled her eyes. She could not believe his audacity. Wes didn’t understand why, but he felt a tension in the room. Mary looked down at her son and uttered the words she had never said before and never thought she would say. “Wes, meet your father.”(Moore25)” He was not able to recognize his son, being drunk all the time he was kicked out of the house by her and never bothered to take care of his kids. Mary (other Wes’ mother) was uneducated and was working every single day to feed their family. She was sent to the University of Hopkins and wanted to further continue her education, but she was not able to due to certain circumstances. Tony (his brother) was a bad example for him as an idol. Wes started becoming like his father due to illegal activities happening around him. He was sent to jail several times. She once caught Wes with drugs but did not care about it. Wes at a very young age got one of his girlfriend Alicia pregnant which made him seek for more money. Wes was serious for Alicia, she was someone who could really change his life. But she got addicted to drugs which made him helpless. He had a decent job at Job Corps. He worked hard but was not able to make suspicious amount of money to feed his family. This made him go back to his old ways of crime. It was not
The other Wes said, “From everything you told me, both of us did some pretty wrong stuff when we were younger. And both of us had second chances. But if the situation or the context where you make the decisions don’t change, then second chances don’t mean too much, huh?” ( Moore, 66), he knew about the second chances that were given to him. But he disregarded all of them. Throughout the book, It was hard to see how one path you take change the rest of you life. In addition to that he mentions, “‘We will do what others expect of us,’ Wes said. ‘If they expect us to graduate, we will graduate. If they expect us to get a job, we will get a job. If they expect us to go to jail, then that’s where we will end up too. At some point you lose control’” (p. 126). Wes is found blaming people for what he is today, Is it true that we accomplish our goals just because we are suppose to? People have their own opinion, yet we can be guided by peers and role models in our lives but it is the person who has to walk through that path. So there is still our own personal

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