Impact Of Reform On Wes Moore

Moore was a troubled kid, getting into fights, getting in trouble for graffiti, running away was sent to many different schools. He was the poor kid in a sea of rich kids (so he didn’t fit in). But he was given the opportunity to change when he was forced to go to a Military boarding school. He eventually decided that he wanted to be apart of something bigger than himself and this was it. He knew he wanted to change. When deciding how he could change he thought, “Aside from my family and friends, the men I trusted most all had something in common: they all wore the uniform of the United States of America,” (Moore pg. 132). He decided he wanted to become a Lieutenant and be someone other people could look up to. This was a major moment in Moore’s life. But Wes, on the other hand, experienced the same bad childhood and never got out of the “bad”. He never had a defining failure where he said ‘this is when I change’. He got onto a path and started making patterns with his decisions and never made the right one to get him to where he needed to be, unlike the other Wes.

Throughout “The other Wes Moore”, The Wes’ were faced with surprisingly similar situations that were handled in very different ways. These situations were key turning points in each of their lives and shaped them into who they are. Even though each Wes had hardships in their environment and faced many trials and tribulations, ultimately, their choices during these times are what produced each Wes. Because of their series of different choices that each Wes Moore made during their lifetime and the outcome of their choices, we are not just products of our environments, but also products of the choices we make.

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

future and unforeseen consequences. They don’t realize the importance of the decisions that they currently make, so people like the other Wes Moore make poor choices. There is a particular organization known as The United Nations Association of the United States of America that branches out into Model United Nations, a program designed to show the importance of decisions by placing students in an environment that shows decisions matter. Children that have experienced the various programs that The United Nations Association of the United States of America offered are aware of how minesquele choices they make can affect their entire world, which they use to better their decisions therefore improving their lives. The United Nations Association of the

“This is a story of two boys living in Baltimore with similar histories and an identical name: Wes Moore. One of us is free… The other will spend every day until his death behind bars...” (Moore, XI) In The Other Wes Moore, the author, Wes Moore, and the other Wes Moore both grew up in similar, yet different, circumstances and had completely different outcomes. This captivating narrative demonstrates how the choices you make, make you. In the introduction, the author Wes Moore validates this statement by saying, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” (Moore XI) The author, Wes Moore, shows the readers that a person’s environment, circumstances, education (or lack

The book, “ The Other Wes Moore” by Wes Moore is about two young boys who were brought up in Baltimore with the same name and alike struggles. Throughout the book, the author is trying to get the readers to find an understanding of why him and the other Wes outcomes were so different of him being an accomplished author ,and the other Wes having life in jail. The author is trying to argue that the Wes Moores have similar lives, but in my opinion they are completely different. The Wes moores had different aspects such as roles models, resources and motivation that prevented them from having similar histories.

Personal responsibility in each individual 's lives is seen to make all the difference in their "final destinies" as indicated by the book (Moore & Smiley, 2010). The "other Wes Moore" makes the conscious decision of using crime in achieving his end. All the personal decisions he makes as he grows into adulthood, are based on the values he adopts along the way according to Moore and Smiley (2010), reinforcing the need to instill the correct values and attitudes in their lives at early stages of their lives. After making "four attempts to escape from the military school within a period of five days", the "lucky" Wes Moore decides to stay, focusing on performing in his study at the school (Moore & Smiley, 2010). The decision lays the foundation for success in all future endeavors as he learns to accomplish his goals with each challenge (Sragow, 2010). The change of attitude towards his situation in juxtaposition with the "other Wes Moore 's" reaction to

Living in the Bronx, he attended a private school, where he would always be reminded of him being one of the only two blacks in the ‘white school’. Therefore, as his grades start to slip, his mother becomes more alarmed about the next step she should take regarding him. Because his family did not want Wes Moore to fall into any illegal trouble in the Bronx, they managed to fund his career at Valley Forge Military School. Not knowing the sacrifices his family made for him to be able to attend military school, Moore started to think of ways to escape. He trusted a stranger at Valley Forge to give him directions to escape, but there he stood tricked, “Bastard, I thought. The directions he had given me were fake.They’d led me nowhere but to the middle of the woods.” (93). After being caught and talking to his mom back home, Wes started to realize the importance of why he was there. This incident is explained very clearly to prove how one wrong decision can change and destroy a life forever. In this case, Wes was saved from falling into that trap which could have ended his life just like the other Wes Moore’s. Soon enough, Wes started to train to become a paratrooper. “An excited nervousness overwhelmed me. It had been a little more than a year since I decided to make the Army a fundamental part of my future.” (130). Due to the confessions made by his mom about the sacrifices, Wes

Although Jeannette Walls and both the Wes Moores had similar environments while growing up, they each had different outlets for holding their own, such as writing for her school, turning to drug dealing, and focusing on military school. One of these is the obvious negative choice among the others. The other Wes Moore, instead of trying to discover a higher road, undertook the exact “job” that his brother had warned him against for years. Wes, however, genuinely thought that this would solve of his problems. He thought that having money would make him happier. He chose this life even directly after remembering how addictive and dangerous drugs were. Wes Moore the author writes the other Wes also thinking, “And he understood, faintly… how easy

The story of either of the Wes Moore, as the reader learns throughout the book, could have happened to the other one or to the both yet only one ended in jail while the other ended as a notable banker and trader. Therefore, people can then question themselves why it did not happen to the two of them and why the Wes Moore, who never knew about his father, was the one who ended incarcerated because, as the reader learn, both of them grew up subjected to the ambushes of the ghetto such as racism, insurgency, brutality and drug consumption.

Communities, families, and friends all drastically affect the young men and women into which every child eventually matures. Their lifestyles, choices, and even fates can be determined by these elements in their lives. Two boys with the same name, each born and raised in Baltimore in the presence of a loving family, somehow managed to end up on two completely different life paths. While one is forced to endure a life sentence in prison, the other has accomplished many notable achievements, including writing a New York Times bestselling novel titled The Other Wes Moore.

“This is the story of two boys living in Baltimore with similar histories and an identical name: Wes Moore. One of us is free and has experienced things that he never even knew to dream about as a kid. The other will spend everyday until his death behind bars for an armed robbery that left a police officer and father of five dead. The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” Moore (xi). The Other Wes Moore shows us how similar their childhoods were but they had two entirely different outcomes in the end. Lets see what some of the similarities and differences in the Wes Moores’ lives pertaining to family and police run-ins of both Wes Moores’ were described in The Other Wes Moore.

Within the bestseller The Other Wes Moore, The author grows up with a loving family who calues good works and integrity. With the death of his father at the age of three, Wes struggles behaviorally and is sent away to Military School. It is assumed thata militrary school saved his life. He was able to immerse himself in a new life with

The author Wes Moore was sent to military school because his grades were lacking and his attendance was spotty. While the criminal Wes Moore was influenced in a negative way and had trouble with the law. The author Moore writes, “I knew my mother was considering sending me away, but I never thought she’d actually do it” (Moore 87). Wes, the author, has been sent the military school because he is not the best student at Riverdale. “Bad grades, absence from classes, and an incident with a smoke bomb were just some of the reasons he rattled off as my mother sat silently with the phone to her ear” (Moore 87). Military school led Wes down a path of discipline. Wes stayed away from drugs and criminal activity after military school. The criminal Wes Moore’s life is affected early on by a character named Tony. Wes, the author, writes “The sight and taste of his own blood set Wes off” (Moore 32). This is this first time wes has used the advice that Tony had given him. Tony told him to not accept aggression

The Other Wes Moore focuses on the lives of two men coincidentally named Wes Moore. At an early age these two men might be unrecognizable from each other; however, it would not be due to their physical appearances but instead due to their similar backgrounds, traumatic events that occurred to them or because of them, their ethnicity, and their neighborhood. The majority might even continue to label them as the same before they reached adulthood. Although regardless to their similarities, how they surpassed these obstacles truly differentiates how they are not alike and what contributed to how their lives ended up. The first Wes Moore, who is actually the author of this book is regarded as a success story, a military hero, Rhodes scholar, and a positive politician as a White House fellow. Whereas on the other hand, the other Wes Moore, fell into a life of criminal behavior and received a life sentence for the murder of an off-duty police officer. The novel attempts to figure out how two men with the same name and a similar background could have chosen such drastically different life choices that ultimately affected the rest of their lives.