The Other Wes Moore is a book talking about two different men with the same name,Wes Moore. They were both raised up by a single mother and live in the same decaying city, Baltimore, where there are surrounded by drug and alcohol. However, the author Wes Moore’s parents completed their education and have a good job while his grandparents also were well-educated. But the other Wes Moore’s parents didn’t graduate from college, his mother tried to get the scholarship but failed, and his father left high school and don’t have a job either. This two Wes Moores both grew up with their mother. The author Wes’s father died for disease while the other Wes’s father left his family. With this situation, they went to the same direction, being absent from …show more content…
Therefore, one of the two Wes Moores became a prisoner, convicted for robbery and murder. And the other one is Rhodes scholar and become a famous author. Even though they grew up in the same environment, but there is a big difference: the author Wes’s parents graduated from college and well educated, while the other Wes’s parents even didn’t finish school. So, according to the book, the most significant effect in the two Wes Moores lives is the education level of their parents. Being educated can help people earn their living and be more responsible. Nowadays, education level is one of the most important requirements and comparative advantage for searching a job. The people who finish higher education, they would have more opportunity. Just like the author Wes’s father, “he finally had the chance to host his own public affairs show. And he’d hired a new writing assistant. Her name was Joy.”(12) After graduate from Bard College, his father gained more opportunities to realize his dream, being on television. Studying in college, we can learn the professional skill and know more about the …show more content…
When people receive education, they will also be receiving the real life techniques like the ways how to communicate, and how to tackle with the possible problem in life. In school, we have our teachers teaching us all the textbook stuffs along with teaching us to be actively participating in extracurricular activities. The extracurricular activities such as participating in speech, debate, sports, and other school programs will activate the communication skills inside the children. In the same way, the author Wes’s parents also learnt the communication skills in school. Not only this, they have even learnt the ways how to tackle with the problems without being afraid of the consequences. When the author Wes got into depression when he was unable to perform well in school, that made him feel quitting to study from military school, her mother knew what she had to do as a responsible guardian, she acted very precisely, she did not use physical threats. Instead, she told him like, “‘I am so proud of you, and your father is proud of you, and we just want you to give this a shot. Too many people have sacrificed in order for you to be there.’”(95). Her mother knew the communication skills about how to persuade her son to do good, and most importantly she told that they are proud of the way he is. The way she communicate with her son, made him realise that to study diligently should be his first priority. Regard of
The main conflict that Wes Moore faced was surviving and overcoming the troubles and influences in the environments he grew up in. Wes went through many experiences, several of them having to do with the worrying activities that went on around him everyday. This quote describes how all of the people living in the same places as Wes, struggled through the same things, what Wes described to be, “…the deadly streets, poverty, and the twin legacy of exclusion and low expectations.” (Moore 170) This means that the economic issues of these cities directly influenced the inhabitants’ life decisions and everyone had the same expectation for life, nothing good. With this expectation in mind, it is easy to see how these issues continued to affect the
The factors that surround us when we are young create the people we become in the future. Usually the people and area that surround us influence the people we become in the future. If we grow up in an area with lots poverty crime and with parents that rarely give a care what we are doing with our lives. We are expected to probably lead a life of crime and violence. Unlike a person who is born in a well adjusted place with parents who concerned for their future are expected to lead better lives. We see in the book The Other Wes Moore the path both men end up taking is because of the many factors that influenced their lives during their young age. One huge factor was their mothers. Each were similar that they both raised their kids as single
In “The Other Wes Moore”, by Wes Moore, the author takes the readers through his life growing up as well as the life of someone who was a stranger to him during his childhood but turned out to be a huge part of his life later on. His name was also Wes Moore and both he and the author grew up in poverty and did not have the best childhood. Although they grew up similarly, their adulthoods were the polar opposite. The author Wes Moore became the top in his class, a Rhodes scholar, and studied at Oxford University to later become very successful. On the other hand, the other Wes Moore is in prison for the rest of his life for a robbery and murder. How did these two grow up so similarly, yet had completely different adulthoods?
The story of two men growing up in the same neighborhood with similar backgrounds with the same name and eerily similar circumstances that leads and ultimately has each character ending up in very different places in life. Taking completely different paths to their futures is the setting of this story “The Other Wes Moore”. The way a person is shaped and guided in their developmental years does undoubtedly play a huge role in the type of person they will become in life. The author Wes does a good job of allowing you the ability to read this story and the circumstances surrounding the character his mother joy played such an important role in his success, while comparing the roll of Mary the other Wes’s mother. Both boys grew up with strong, hardworking black women in their lives and yet it still allowed for two completely different journeys. I think the lack of fathers and having not so good male role models was also a contributing factor.
In “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” written by Wes Moore the author writes about two boys growing up in Baltimore that share the same name and similar backgrounds but end up taking drastically different paths in life due to many varying factors. The author goes on to earn a college degree, become a Rhodes Scholar, a veteran and more while the “other” Wes cannot avoid the inevitable fate of dealing drugs and ultimately spends his life running from the police and in prison. This reflects how both Wes Moore’s became products of their environment as the way a person is shaped and guided in their developmental years does unquestionably play a large role in the type of person they will become as adults. A lot of elements come into play that help to determine a person’s success or failure, but at the end of the day the most important factors are family, education and opportunities.
Throughout the book, The Other Wes Moore we learned about the lives of two young kids who unexpectedly share the same name but like everyone else have totally different life’s. This book explores the concepts that deal with a person’s path in life and gives us an understanding of which factors are the ones that greatly influence the type of person we will become. I believe that the factors that have a bigger impact on our life paths are; the environment we live in, our family and friends.
In their respective life journey, both Wes Moores often found them facing with some hard choices or decision to make or standing at a crossroads of life change without knowing which way to turn. Therefore, “for all of us who live in the most precarious places in this country, our destinies can be determined by a single stumble down the wrong path or a tentative step down the right one” (Moore xiv). During their early childhood, both Wes Moores struggle at school and had troubles with the law. However, for the author Wes Moore, attending the military school was the biggest turning point in his life. Aware of his mother’s determination, his family’s sacrifice, and encouragement from classmates and instructors as well as the influence of role models, the author Wes Moore finally made up his mind that he wanted to succeed in the military school. At the end, the author Wes Moore fulfilled his dream and did well academically from then on. On the other hand, the other Wes Moore had tumbled on a series of missteps along the road: dropping out of school, getting involved with drug trade, committing violent crimes, and being a father of four when he was so young and immature. Even though there was a time when he tried to reinvent himself: joining the Job Corp, getting a high school diploma, and finding some decent jobs, the reality and his making-quick-money mentality eventually brought him back to the original path with no return. At last, by committing an armed robbery that left a police officer dead, the other Wes Moore irreversibly drove himself to the dead end of life. Obviously, based on their early life experiences, both Wes Moores would have gone the same route to failure. Nevertheless, at some critical points of their lives, the author Wes Moore made some good choices with intervention and guidance of good people while the other Wes Moore lost his footing under undue
They both grow up in a similar environment and was raised by a single mother. Author Wes can see how the other Wes 's life went and saw that there were Decisions and actions that were taken that made them made them into the people they become. American people are always talking about “keeping up with the Jones 's” and “the grass is greener on the other side”, and most people don 't ever know about a person who shared their name and grew up in the same environment. So it makes sense that if a person becomes aware of a person like that, who shared a name and grew up in the same environment, they want to know more about what that person 's life was
The Other Wes Moore is about two men, who have the same name, Wes Moore, grew up not even miles away from each other, West Baltimore, both lost their father, and they still had two completely different fates. Wes Moore, the author, got send to military school and join the Air Force. The Other Wes Moore will spend every day of his life in prison for a murder of a police men. The other Wes says he didn’t do the murder even though there is major evidence pointing his way that proves that he did do the murder.
Expectations influence who we become. Many factors come into play when we assess the lives of both Wes Moores introduced in the short novel The Other Wes Moore. Some of these factors are the expectations that shaped each man’s life. Moore illustrates his point when he writes, “The expectations that others place on us help us form our expectations of ourselves”(126). The explanation to the quote was it will help people to see the expectation of “thinking outside the box” means that think freely for themselves with better judgment in everyday life for their moral action in their society. Expectations from others have a strong impact on the choices an individual makes, and both Wes Moore’s choices were strongly influenced by the expectations
“I guess it’s hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances” (Moore 67). This is a powerfully central theme to the book The Other Wes Moore, written by Wes Moore. For the two men this book is about, it all begins with a wide-open future. The mothers that gave birth to them and the influences they had, along with their own powerful choices, sealed their fate . People don’t ever stop growing or improving and the two Wes Moore’s are no different. Throughout their lives, they are constantly changing and in some places calling the shots. One chose correctly, and one did not.
The two ultimate choices to send him to a private and a military school, plus Moore’s own choice to not pursue a career in the NBA but to stay in school were three powerful choices that shaped him to become the man he is today. On the other hand, Moore’s destiny is one that is striking differently from the other Wes Moore’s destiny. As previously stated, these two boys who share a similar identity and started in the same circumstances ended up in two discrete places, due to the decisions they made, and what their fates had in store for
Wes Moore Paper Richelle Goodrich once said, “To encourage me is to believe in me, which gives me the power to defeat dragons.” In a world submerged in diversity, racism and prejudice it is hard for minorities to get ahead. The novel “The Other Wes Moore” is a depiction of the differences that encouragement and support can make in the life of a child. This novel is about two men, with the same name, from the same neighborhood, that endured very similar adversities in their lives, but their paths were vastly different. In the following paragraphs, their lives will be compared, and analyzed from a sociological perspective.
Education, environment and family factors can determined a person’s future life is success or failure. The other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates talks about two people with a same name and the environments they grew up were similar. However, the decisions they made let they ended up with a different life. The author Wes Moore became a successful political, and the other Wes Moore became a criminal in the end. The reason is the author Wes Moore made a correct choice to enrich his future life. The other Wes failed his life because he made a wrong choice. Overall, the author Wes Moore was more successful than the other Wes Moore because of the supporting family, and strong education.
Two Baltimore kids whose lives were on the street, yet one became a veteran and scholar while the other is a convicted murderer. Doubt plays a role in both of their stories, but shines in the first one. Wes Moore started to get into the life of drugs and crime, a fate his mother feared for him. He’s told by teachers he reads below his grade level, and they doubt he will receive his high school diploma. When his mother ships him to Valley Forge Academy, his mindset changes. His family and friend doubt he will last more than one week there. He uses their doubt to support his certainty that he will become a better person. He will get his diploma then a degree. Moore takes his ambitions to the next level by becoming a veteran of the US Army. Wes Moore shows that although doubt can bring people down, it can also build them