Character Analysis: The Other Wes Moore

In The Other Wes Moore, the author and a neighbor have the same name, Wes Moore, and they both begin their lives in similar ways. However, as their lives progress, they begin to part. For example, both “lost” their fathers when they were young. Because of the way their mothers respond to this loss, the boys’ lives begin to separate. Both mothers have different responses to challenges in general, which eventually leads them to respond to their child’s actions in contrasting ways. Throughout this novel, readers learn that depending on how a mother decides to react to the negative actions of their child’s actions, the child can either lead a successful life or lead a life of failure.

For starters, while Joy fights through each of her challenges, Mary pushes them away. In response to the loss of her husband, Joy moves to the Bronx and comes across many barriers. Wes describes her response to these challenges: “But no matter how much the world around us seemed ready to crumble, my mother was determined to see us through

In chapter five, the author wants to convince his mom to allow him to return home from Valley Forge. However, his mom boldly denies the author’s request and talks about the sacrifices she made to send him there. As the author recalls his conversation with his mom, he remarks, “With no intervention - or the wrong intervention - [young boys] can be lost forever. My mother made the decision to intervene - and decided that overdoing it was better than doing nothing at all” (95). The author expresses that his mother deliberately “made the decision” to change her son’s life for the better. To avoid making her son “be lost forever” because of bad choices, Joy decides to intervene and step into the author’s life to block the bad choices. In this scene, Joy tries her best to prevent the author from making bad