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

it” (47). As portrayed here, Joy is a devoted and “determined” woman, willing to endure to the end. Mary, a 27-year old mother with two kids, also goes through obstacles. The other Wes reflects on her reaction by saying: “Mary [planned] on doing what she always did to...commiserate...She and a couple of friends would head out to...a popular nightclub” (19). Here, Mary escapes her family life and difficulties by socializing with friends. Through these two examples, the reader is able to realize that Joy and Mary respond in contrasting ways to similar situations - with Joy persevering through and Mary pushing them aside. Their contrasting responses to actions are further demonstrated through the way they respond to their son’s actions.

Mary attempts to deny the other Wes’s inappropriate actions. Wes sells drugs, but claims he receives his increasing income from DJing. Tony realizes that Wes is lying and therefore punches Wes, catching Mary’s attention and “infuriating her” (71). When Mary understands the scene better, she realizes that Wes is actually selling drugs, but tries her hardest to deny the idea. Even when she searches through Wes’s items the following day, she tries her hardest to push away her fears. Though Mary knew “her younger son was no innocent” (71), Mary tells herself to “[not] as a question unless [she’s] ready to hear the answer” (72). Within this example, though Mary knows her son is “no innocent” and has been arrested before, Mary tries her hardest to push away any thoughts unless she is willing to admit the truth. As readers can understand, Mary is clearly trying to disregard Wes’s behaviors.

Quite contrastingly to Mary, Joy decides to do everything in the realms of her possibility to prevent the author from making bad choices.

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

choices.

Throughout these examples, readers learn that both Joy and Mary have their own, unique, and contrasting responses to challenges. It turns out that they respond to their son’s actions the same contrasting ways. While Mary denies and avoids her challenges, Joy fights through them. Because of the way these mothers react to challenges, they treat their sons in different ways. These unique forms of action leaded the author and the other Wes to the opposing lives they live today. In conclusion, as proven throughout various points in The Other Wes Moore, depending on the way mothers raise their kids, they could lead their children to either a path to success or the life of failure.