The “other” Wes once said, “If [others] 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” (127). In Wes Moore’s book The Other Wes Moore expectations from our role models impact everything including our jobs. Two kids named Wes Moore, similar in age grow up just blocks from each other, with difficult childhoods including run ins with the police and hanging with their crew. One becomes a Rhodes scholar, decorated veteran and business leader, and the other ends up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in prison. Their stories could have been switched with so many similarities in their life but the slight differences …show more content…
How could I? she was my everything, the person I loved and respected most in my world. I had no idea what to do” (88). This is when the readers see a big role model in the author Wes’s life emerge. Wes looked up to his mother she was the good in his life. Without this role model the author Wes’s life could have been very different, but his mother is who helped him do great things with his life. Besides the fact that both Wes’s had a role model in their life, they have very different lives. Additionally both men have jobs, their jobs have huge impacts on their futures. Notably one job was a positive influence in one Wes’s life, and the other ruined the Wes’s life. After the author Wes gets to military school, he is struggling with the fact that he was sent to military school. At first he hates it, but throughout the next few years of his life he learns to love it. After completing high school at Valley Forge, Wes makes the decision that would make an impact on his life for the better. After his Colonel left Valley Forge, Wes says, “My next decision was clear. I wanted to stay at Valley Forge and attend its junior college…and become a second lieutenant in the Army. I wanted to lead soldiers” (133). This was a major turning point in his life, this decision was what helped The author Wes stay out of trouble, and create a good life for himself. Wes went on to do good
The author reveals that he hung out with the wrong people which afforded him to be arrested by the police due to vandalism. Because of this incident, the author Wes was sent to Valley Forge, a military school in Philadelphia. The author claims that the author Wes had a difficult time at first and had tried to escape the school several times; but when he discovered that his mother and his grandparents sacrificed a lot just to send him there, he decided to stay and eventually became a platoon leader. However, Moore states that the other Wes got involved with the use and distribution of drugs, like his brother Tony. The author mentions that the other Wes got his girlfriend pregnant and adds that the news of early fatherhood made him frustrated. Moore states that the other Wes stopped attending school and expanded his drug selling business. The author states that the other Wes was arrested for selling drugs to a police
Parenting played a big role in shaping the two boys lives. Having a parental mentor is important because they assist and guide children to take the right decisions about their lives. The author had his two parents at the beginning of his life. Also, the author’s parents, especially his mother, tried to raise him in an effective way wanting him to know the right from wrong at an early age. “No mommy loves you, like I love you, she just wants you to do the right thing” (Moore 11). This quote was a live example of the author’s life with his parents. It reflected the different ways his parents used to teach him “the right thing.” Though his mother was upset from his action toward his sister, his father
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.
A person’s success or failure can be determined by their environment, education, choices; a number of different things. The autobiography The Other Wes Moore takes a look at two boys with the same name and eerily similar circumstances who end up in very different places in life. Wes Moore spoke at convocation about his book and what he hoped that people would get from it. In the book he says “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” (Moore xi). These two men didn’t share the same fate because they each made a choice about what they wanted their life to become. The book truly demonstrates how the choices you make, make you. One Wes
In the book, The Other Wes Moore it is difficult to believe the great similarities in the lives of the two Moores, who share a name and other aspects of life. The two were raised fatherless and were born in the late 1970’s in the neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. They also happen to have encountered similar experiences when growing up, but at one point one of them became a criminal and the other a scholar (the author of the book). The author of the book seems to be interested in the similarities of the two boys as opposed to their different experiences. The story is interesting and makes one imagine what would have become of the writer if he did not by any chance come across the people who guided him to become what
Wes #1 grew up without his father; his father died near the beginning of the story with a rare disease. Wes #1 did not understand the responsibility that he would have to uphold until he got older because he was only three years old. Wes #1 needed a father figure because he needed a manly structure in his life. Even though Wes already had a loving mother, willing to play both roles as a mother and father, a mother can only do but so much. Young men need fathers/father figures because they help out with the things mothers can not explain. This takes us back to the subject of environment and family, because Wes #1 had a environment that strived off of respect, he had a family that strived off of doing the right thing.
“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
William Shakespeare, a late sixteenth-century iconic poet, and playwright, once expressed, “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.” Every cause has a ripple effect, and Shakespeare came to the realization that it is not some higher figure or celestial object that controls our fates, but rather our decisions that morph us into the individuals we become. Similarly, The Other Wes Moore written by Wes Moore, features an identical theme regarding choices and how they affect our lives: two adolescents with remarkably similar backgrounds living two drastically different lives due to their judgement. Particularly through the other Wes Moore character, the author puts emphasis on his deep-seeded desire for wealth in order to
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.
The author Wes Moore’s family greatly influenced him and definitely helped him become a successful person today. As a kid, Wes often struggled in school. His mother made many sacrifices, worked many jobs so her son could go to school out of the neighborhood.went to school out of the neighborhood because his mother wanted him to stay on positive path. His mom made many sacrficies for her son because she wanted him to get the education he needed to become successful. When Riverdale wasn’t helping him to get the education he needed, his mother sent him away to military school.In order to do this, his mother made more sacrifices. His mother worked several jobs so she could pay off military school. Also, his grandparents gave his mother the money
The author Wes had and accomplished goals. Specific achievements he’s made include, military school, getting acknowledged for his basketball talent, and receiving the Rhodes Scholarship. It all started when his mom decided to put him in military school. It took time for Wes to accept the military ways. Later the acceptance would cause him to actually “enjoy the school”(130). He’d work his way up from plebe to “paratrooper”(130). Wes was “one of the youngest officers in the entire United States Military”(134). It was a huge, story worthy experience for Wes. His high school sports career was astonishing too, enough for “The New York Times to run a two-page article”(130) about it. Eventually, the publication of his well-doing, “attracted colleges”(130) and gave him a chance to play with “NBA members, like Kobe Bryant”(130).
One central difference to think about when looking at the two individuals is the fact that Wes has a more supporting mother than Wes (2), in a person’s life a mother is so important and can be looked as a blessing. A mother is the one that supposed to be the person that takes great care of you and guides you, and to teach what’s right from wrong. The author’s mother was much more supportive for her son, Wes acknowledges, “Every time I looked around at the buildings and the trees and the view of the river, I was reminded of the sacrifices my mother was making to keep me there.” (Moore 52). Due to this quote, we can conclude that Wes’s mother, although struggling at the time, found a way to put her child in the best possible route in education. Wes presents it as kind of an understatement, however, from his mother doing this, it affects his life so much. By being put in a excellent school, it offers many more opportunities than that of the other Wes and he can gather a lot more help/exposure to guide him toward a bright future. On the other hand, we have Wes (2) that is lost and seems as if he just can’t find his way, “Young boys are more likely to believe in themselves if they know that there’s someone, somewhere, who shares that belief. To carry the
Through Wes Moore’s The Other Wes Moore, the author tells the story of himself and another man with the same name and a strikingly similar upbringing. In chapter 6 it is revealed that the parental and authority figures in both their lives greatly affected and shaped who they became. By comparing and contrasting the tough choices they made, complications they face at home and at school, and their new authoritative positions, the author uses the two Wes Moore’s lives in Chapter 6 to appeal to pathos, allowing the reader to feel a connection with each character and develop an understanding of both Moore’s accomplishments and hardships.
How do two boys with the same name who live within the same community end up with lives on two completely different paths? The author, Wes Moore, begins life in a tough Baltimore neighborhood and ends up a Rhodes Scholar, Wall Streeter, White House Fellow, etc. The other Wes Moore starts in the same place in Baltimore but ends up in prison FOR LIFE.
One’s childhood has a lasting impact on their entire life. Moore’s upbringing and the loving family he was born into, no matter how trivial it may seem, greatly contributed to his success. Wes seemingly grew up the same as any other kid in the Bronx – in a single-parent household, surrounded by bad influences… what separated him from the crowd? His support system: his family, and their ultimate support and sacrifices made all the difference. As a teenager, Wes seemed to be going down the wrong path. He constantly skipped school, his academic failures were overwhelming, and he was even arrested for vandalism. In the case of the other Wes, his family simply let these actions slide, and decision after decision ultimately landed him with a life sentence in prison. The author Wes’s mother, however, refused to allow this behavior to continue. As a method of intervention, she forced Moore to attend Valley Forge, and in doing so, probably saved his career. The extent of his family’s sacrifice was evident on page 95 when Wes realized that “my grandparents took the money they had in the home in the Bronx, decades of savings and mortgage payments, and gave it to my mother