The Importance Of Joy In Wes Moore's Life

In The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, many people were able to grasp ahold of the author Wes’s life and help him get steered into the right direction. I feel that his mother, Joy, had the biggest impact on his life and meant the most for him. “When we moved to New York, she worked multiple jobs, from a freelance writer for magazines and television to a furrier’s assistant- whatever she could do to help cover her growing expenses (47).” Joy was a very hardworking woman. She worked not one but two jobs to cover her expenses, her kids expenses, and to help her parents out. She did this because she wanted what was best for her children. This later comes back to make Wes respect his mother for all that she has provided and sacrificed for him to get all that he did.
Joy was the person who pushes him to do better without giving in to him. She wrote many letters to her family asking for money to send Wes to military school. “...Wes, you are not going anywhere until you give this place a try. I am proud of you, and your father is proud of you, and we just want to give this a shot. Too many people have sacrificed in order for you to be there”(95). She knew what she had to do to give Wes what he needed to reach his full potential, even if that meant borrowing money from her family. Hearing his mom say that he didn’t know how

Joy did whatever it took and sometimes it meant not letting Wes leave military school to come home. She stood her ground and wanted to make him a better person, so she made him stick it out. She also valued her kids education so much that she did all she could which meant working multiple jobs just to keep them out of the public schooling system. If Wes didn’t have the support of his mother, he would of turn out like the Other Wes that was in the story and he mostly likely would have gone to jail