Homonyms In The Other Wes Moore

They’re, their, and there are similar to two, to, and too. As what we write may not be right, we say these words in the same way and mean them completely different. The words are called homonyms, and as homonyms sound the same and have different meanings, the two characters in The Other Wes Moore, written by Wes Moore, have the same names who, when given similar circumstances, took different paths and ended up in contrasting positions. While one Wes Moore finished with prestigious academic honors, the other wound up in prison for life. As a girl forever yearning to succeed, I would associate myself with the Wes Moore who had the support to pick himself up after he fell, rather than the one who could never lift himself up again.
In both of our

younger days, the author Wes Moore and I have been faced with peer pressure. Growing up, I was always the “goodie-two-shoes,” but when I was suddenly faced with rebels, the excitement of doing something bad was intriguing. Though my situation hardly compares, the author Wes Moore was faced with a bad neighborhood crowd. As he was taken into a police car after vandalizing a building, I was firmly scolded by my parents when I sang an inappropriate song my friend taught me. Both of these situations taught us we were not destined to become these types of people—even if it took Wes a little longer to realize it. When the author described the overwhelming guilt when he was thrown against the police car, it reminded me of how I felt when I disobeyed my parents. Even though Wes and I were faced with these common pressures from our peers, we now realize the mistake gave us a little taste of what we do not want in this world.
In contrast to peer pressure causing our mistakes, the author Wes Moore and I had overwhelming support from our family, friends, teachers, and other community members. I had so many people who could not wait for me to grow up and do great things in this world. The author Wes Moore had similar expectations from his family members. Though our routes differ, both the author and I had parents who would do anything to see their child succeed, no matter what resources they had to use. As Wes Moore mentions in the book, “My mother had written to family and friends asking them to help…” and after saying how she was still short in the thousands of dollars, he tells us his grandparents gave, “…decades of savings and mortgage payments,” to help Wes’s mother pay for his military school (Moore 96). In comparison, my grandparents have helped my parents over the years by providing school clothes money for my sisters, cousins, and me; they also contributed a great amount of money as each of us ventured off to college. My grandparents have been a huge support system over the years, just as the author Wes Moore’s grandparents always had his back.
As encouraging support systems and silly mistakes make people unique, they also compare the author Wes Moore and I. Though we contrast as the “good girl,” and, “bad boy,” we both have had friends to help us learn from mistakes and families to kick us into gear. Homonyms, synonyms, or whatever we may be, there are similarities between all of us—even the most unlikely.