In Wes Moore’s 2010 book “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” two men with the same name, born blocks apart who are raised in an identical poverty and drug plagued neighborhood are examined. What author Wes Moore discovers in his conversations with inmate Wes Moore, is that their lives were remarkably similar growing up. Given their current situations in life, their paths to get there take shape through a series of interchangeable decisions and life events. One Wes through mentorship in decision-making ends up a Rhodes Scholar and decorated war veteran, while the other Wes minus the mentoring ends up in prison serving a life sentence. The age-old cry, “It takes a village,” resonates in Moore’s examination of his mirrored upbringing. …show more content…
Wes’s mother Joy had issues coping with her husband’s death, and shortly thereafter Wes and his family moved to the Bronx to live with his grandparents. There, young Wes finds his living situation to be stricter than what he previously encountered with his parents and found himself trying to escape. Author Wes was beginning to grow into his own in the Bronx and Wes’s Draper 2 mother decided that her son would attend a private school in Manhattan outside of the inner city. The author conflicted with his identity stated, “Even if you weren’t running with the coolest clique, you still got some percentage of your rep from your school, and the name Riverdale wasn’t going to impress anyone . . . .It made my crew kind of suspicious of me” (Moore, 49). The author Wes was slipping in school and in life, and his mother began threatening him with military school. The final straw for Wes came when the police detained him for vandalism. His mother made the necessary decision to enroll him in military school. The other Wes Moore was born in Baltimore and like the author to a single working class mother. Mary his mother was attending John Hopkins University trying to leave Baltimore …show more content…
With his mother working long hours to provide, Wes was typically unsupervised leaving him in the hands of his brother Tony who was “fiercely protective” (Moore, 26). Tony had his own issues with life; he was a well-known neighborhood gangster and drug dealer. Despite his brother’s issues Wes attempted to follow his own path. Football became Wes’s outlet, unfortunately he became so consumed in football his grades fell and his troubles began. Wes slipped through the cracks of public education and found himself with a juvenile record and the urge for acceptance. Wes making a critical decision in his life, without a voice around to say otherwise entered the drug game. Both Wes Moore’s shared a common thread while growing up. They both grew up in single parent environments, both were raised in inner city neighborhoods, and both had run-ins with the law. As author Wes Moore states in the introduction, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine . . . . The tragedy is that my story could have been his” (xi). He had Draper 3 discovered what he shared with his inmate counterpart was much greater than he and his subject. The story of the two Wes Moore’s was shared similarly by a generation of men “who came
Military school straighten Wes out to where he turned a new leaf over for his life and was set on the straight and narrow, whereas, the other Wes continue to sell drugs and get caught up in a life of crime which, eventually landed him in jail. For the both Wes Moore’s, they have seen how badly drugs and gang violence had come and took over the neighborhood. Given that Wes Moore had the support of his family and community, they provided a positive impact on his life. He is the product of an environment of where if people expect you to succeed, you succeed, and he became very successful in his life and is spending a life sentence in jail. The other Wes Moore had little to no support system when it came to his upbringing. As much as Tony tried to straighten him out, Wes was consumed by what he didn’t have and knowing how he can get it. He is the product of his environment, where if people expected you to fail, you failed. Even when he tried to straighten out his life, the system failed him, basically forcing him back into the drug
Both Weses had several circumstances in common that happened early on in their lives. Moore narrates that he lost his father at a young age due to a medical misdiagnosis. The author says that with the loss of his father, his family had to move to the Bronx to live with his grandparents. The author Wes was the second of three children, and with the absence of his father, his mother Joy had to work multiple jobs to send him and his siblings to school. Moore adds that he was enrolled in a private school but skipped his classes often and was put on academic probation. On the other hand, the
During the two Wes Moore’s teenage years, they had run ins with people that turned violent. Part of how they reacted to these situations are attributed to what their peers are doing and where they live but how they overcome, or fail to overcome these obstacles helped put each of them where they are today. When Wes had a run in with Ray for sleeping with Ray’s cousin, Ray put a pretty big beating on him, but it was how Wes chose to react that put a nail in his coffin.
In the novel, The Other Wes Moore, Moore discovers the way people shape our lives and influence our future by examining the effects of family support, influence from peers, and his experience with authoritative figures in his life. He sees this through the story of the other Wes Moore. A young man who grew up a product of his environment, single mother, and a brother who was to involved with the bad life to be of any help to him. With this Wes Moore's life was sentenced to where he is now. The author is astonished by the fact that although their paths significantly differed they weren't always so different.
In conclusion, both Wes Moore’s had critical moments and different standpoints throughout the entirety of their lives. Though they both had individual accountabilities it was the choices that they individually made that ultimately determined there fates. “Wes and I stared at each other for a moment, surrounded by the evidence that some kids were forced to become adults prematurely. These incarnated men, before they’d even reached a point of basic maturity, had flagrantly-and tragically-squandered the few opportunities they’d
The reasoning as to why I believe the other Wes Moore could have went down a path to success is if the other Wes Moore had the same family support as the author Wes Moore and if his brother who had a big influence on Wes, was not involved in the drug game. While both Wes Moore’s are both fatherless, the author Wes Moore was a lot luckier than the other Wes Moore, because he had his grandparents to help raise him. With the support of his grandparents, Wes had someone to look after him and also help steer him in the right direction if needed. His grandparents gave Wes and his sisters a set of rules and chores to do every single day. Compared to the other Wes Moore, he did not have any sort of discipline or rules to go by in his house due to the fact his mother and brother were never really at home. Furthermore, with the other Wes Moore, he only had his mother and his brother Tony, who both were not a good influence on him at all. The other Wes Moore looked up to his brother and wanted to be exactly like Tony. For example, when Wes got into a small
“I sat back, allowing Wes's words to sink in. Then I responded, "I guess it's hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances"(Page 67). In "The Other Wes Moore" the environment of both Wes Moore's were completely different from each other. They both made some stupid decisions over time but who is perfect? It is expected of everyone to make some mistakes, in my opinion the main influence on their choices came from their environment. In their environment they had peers that would influence them to do things that they did not necessarily want to do. This caused them to get into trouble, but at the same token, their environment also gave them some opportunities to make it through some rough times. For Example: Wes #2
Wes Moore, the author of “The Other Wes Moore” had many accomplishments in his life. He however gained notoriety with this book it was a New York Times best seller. In Chapter 7, the main idea is that two people living in the same environment had different outcomes in their lives by making entirely different decisions on how to deal with the adversities they faced in their lives. These decisions led to the lives that they ultimately lived. The tone was intense and high energy to begin with but then seemed to turn neutral in both men’s stories. The purpose is to inform the reader how the same environment can take two people and based on their decisions lead to very different out comes in life. The author takes each man’s thoughts and show how
“The other Wes Moore”, written by Wes Moore portrays the life of two different characters; who coincidently have the same name. The two characters both were African Americans struggling in poverty without the support of a competent father. Despite having the same name and a similar background, the two different people live two very different lives due to the decisions they have made in their lifetime. These two different narratives were told to depict the struggles of the African Americans with different environments, opportunities and role models, and how these aspects affect their development.
The other Wes Moore took a different path later in his life. Even though his role model and older brother, Tony, encouraged him to stay in school and to stay out of the drug game; Wes did not listen. Although he tried to better himself by enrolling himself into a program and trying to get back into school, “Wes went back to school immediately after leaving the juvenile detention facility, the Baltimore County Detention Center in Towson” (Moore 110), he still did not accomplish what he wanted. Wes just wanted to be able to support himself and his family but “Wes found it almost impossible to find a job to support
The Other Wes Moore is a story that details two men, by the same name, living two very different lives in Baltimore, Maryland. The author’s story is of success. He left the Bronx to become a respectable citizen of society. While the other Wes Moore became a lifelong tenant of a federal person for his actions. The two life comparisons drive criminology theories of nature versus nurture for the black community. It asks the question if the author Moore was some fluke in the national statistics or did Wes really have his own hand in creating his destiny? Even though the men shared similar beginnings in an underprivileged neighbourhood, their lives diverged due to their family environment and personal perseverance. When at the time, they were
As the novel “Wes Moore and the Other Wes Moore” processes, I noticed the little mistakes that the other Wes Moore is deciding to make him end up with a life sentence in prison. The little errors you make throughout your life can lead to a huge event in the future. The other Wes Moore started to mature when he decided to chase a kid with a knife. Then, he decided to become a drug dealer. Finally, his decision to shoot a kid.
The book, The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore tells a story about two men with the same name and last name but with different outcomes. The author tells his story and the other Wes Moore’s story, how they started off in the same neighborhood and made similar choices but one ended up in prison for life and the other with his freedom. There are several reasons that the two Wes Moores ended up in different situations such as the way their mothers raised them and the different choices that were made by them throughout their life as young adults. The statement that the author wrote at the end of the book is true to the extent that they both grew up in the same type of neighborhood and both were raised by single mothers.
Wes Moore, the author, had become a delinquent and his mother no longer knew how to handle him. She resorted to sending him to military school and this broke Wes’s heart. This new change of address was a stark difference to the rules and systems by which he was raised. At first he rejected the institution
In the memoir titled The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore the author shows us throughout the book the conditions that both Wes Moores have gone through. In their early childhood, they lived in poverty stricken neighborhoods with a mother that tried to do everything she could to better her children's lives. It is through these conditions that they were presented with their own set of opportunities and choices. Though, both Wes’s were given a multitude of chances they both took their separate paths. From public vandalism to dealing drugs on the street. It is through these conditions and paths they have taken that shaped them into the men they are today.The author's purpose for this is to inform us that our choices and paths