Wes Vs. Wess Moore's The Other Wes Moore

1126 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Influence of family on individual

While reading the book The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore many readers come to find out why Wes states, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” (Moore Introduction). What Wes is saying here is that both Wes Moore 's have a very similar life they shared the same name, they both lived in Baltimore with similar histories, yet they had two complete different lives. This is not to say that I agree with the statement, but rather disagree to an extent. I believe that even after being from the same town, having the same name, and both not having fathers at a young age Wes Moore had a more fortunate life that the other Wes Moore. This being because Wes didn’t have a father because Wes had so much support from his loved ones. After Wes’s father passed, his mother couldn 't handle being alone in the house she shared so many memories in without him anymore. So she called her mom, and they arranged to move in with her mom back in New York. Wes not only had his sisters, and mother but he also had his grandparents. Wes had strict rules to follow, he had to be home when the street lights came on, and as soon as he hears any gunfire or anything his grandmother considered foolishness he was to immediately come home. Wes was taught right from wrong, and got in trouble when he did wrong but soon learned from his Yet, the other Wes Moore had come across his mothers weed stash one day while looking for some change in her room. To me this is just unacceptable, Mary is held responsible in becoming a role model to her children. She should be showing her kids how drugs are bad, not be using them. The other Wes Moore came home drunk one afternoon after a day full of adventure with his friends, they had been smoking pot and drinking alcohol. As soon as Wes entered the house Mary 's boyfriend at the time noticed something was up. Other than Mary questioning him she walked into his room and asked how he felt, and while laughing made a commented saying “Well, at least now you know how bad it feels” (Moore 62). Mary should have got him in trouble other than thinking it was a laughing matter. She wasn 't a great mother and some readers may challenge my view by insisting that Mary didn 't know how to raise kids at such a young age. Mary has no excesses she should have wanted better for hew kids and done whatever she could to keep them out of trouble. If someone truly loved their kids and want them to stay out of trouble they would do anything in their will to do

Show More
Related

  • The Liars Club: A Memoir Of Mary Karr's Life

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up Mary Karr didn't have a “stable” childhood. Her parents Pete and Charlie had many obstacles they faced throughout their life. Pete, who worked at a graveyard at the oil refinery was an alcoholic. He would drink every day, whether it was at home or with the liars club, he always had a drink in his hand. Charlie, who dealt with many illnesses such as an anxiety disorder and being a hypochondriac was not the best role model in Mary and Lecia life. At only 2 years old, Charlie almost died of pneumonia. After surviving that, she wasn't a normal kid, she had many issues.

    Read More

  • The Other Wes Moore Character Analysis

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel guides you through the 8 crazy years that led to Wes Moore 1's success and Wes Moore 2's life sentence in prison. Wes Moore 1 definitely did not have the perfect life but his life had more positives than Wes Moore 2. Wes's family, friends and the military impacted his decision making and life choices that make him successful today. But the more he tried to be like his brother, the more Tony pushed back.”

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Other Wes Moore

    578 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the passage from The Other Wes Moore, author Wes Moore uses an event to display a moment when he matures and realizes if he screws up his life, he may never get control of his fate back. After getting caught spray painting a wall, Author Wes Moore, AWM, states, “he had control of my destiny–or at least my immediate fate. And I couldn’t deny that it was my own stupid fault”(83).

    Read More

  • The Other Wess Moore's The Other Wes Moore

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the high criminal neighborhood where the other Wes lived, people who live there need a positive role model or a mentor to lead them to a better future. Usually the older family members are the person they can look up to. The other Wes’s mother was not there when the other Wes felt perplexed about his future and needed her to support and give him advises. Even though the other Wes’s mother moved around and tried to keep the other Wes from bad influences in the neighborhood, still, the other Wes dropped out of school and ended up in the prison. While the author Wes went to the private school every day with his friend Justin; the other Wes tried to skip school with his friend Woody. Moore says, “Wes had no intention of going to school. He was supposed to meet Woody later – they were going to skip school with some friends, stay at Wes’s house, and have a cookout” (59). This example shows that at the time the other Wes was not interested in school. Because Mary was busy at work, trying to support her son’s education, she had no time and energy to look after the other Wes. For this reason, she did not know how the other Wes was doing at school and had no idea that he was escaping school. She missed the opportunities to intervene in her son’s life and put him on the right track. Moreover, when the author was in the military school, the other Wes was dealing drugs to people in the streets and was already the father of a child. The incident that made the other Wes drop out of school was when he had a conflict with a guy. The other Wes was dating with the girl without knowing that she had a boyfriend. One night, her boyfriend found out her relationship with the other Wes and had a fight with him. During the fight, the other Wes chased the guy and shot him. The guy was injured and the other Wes was arrested

    Read More

  • Nurture Vs. Nature In The Other Wes Moore

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    It’s in these subtle differences that one can identify where it went wrong for the Other Wes Moore. The reason that there was no father figure is drastically different, the author's father died when Moore was

    Read More

  • What Is The Other Wes Moore Essay

    1034 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Wes Moore Conflict Analysis

    152 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Book Report On The Other Wes Moore

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Other Wes Moore Essays: The Story In A Tough Environment

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Research Paper On The Other Wes Moore

    1619 Words  | 4 Pages

    A child will not change their behavior if their parent does not show disapproval and does something about their behavior we they act out. With both of these combine, it made Wes’s opportunities starting from a young age, very slim of being successful. Growing up, Wes Moore had his mom and family around him to support him and when things got bad, his mom sent him to military school as a disciplinary action. This saved Wes from further becoming a bad kid because there, he learned discipline and respect. On the other hand, the other Wes Moore was off selling drugs and doing other bad things while his only influence was his brother. The other Wes Moore was so involved in his profits from selling drugs that he even sold to a cop even though he knew that he was undercover (Moore 112). Wes took this chance because he was so desperate for the twenty dollars he was going to receive, he didn 't care what the consequences were. I believe that if the author Wes Moore never went to military school, that he would have turned out just like the other Wes Moore. Weich from Lincoln County Jail stated that when investigating the jail, inmate were forced to garden as their “hardwork” this was supposed to change them. The inmates just had to be on good behavior and they were then able to garden while in jail (Weich). The point of going to jail is to be disciplined and learn and grow as a

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Joy In Wes Moore's Life

    594 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Other Wes Moore

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Expectations In The Other Wes Moore

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Other Wes Moore

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Smashed: Story Of A Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailckas

    1545 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the end it seems as though there is no real moral or lesson to be learned. She wasn't really an addict; she just liked to drink. No long recovery, no epiphany. No treatment, no withdrawal problems. No lasting health issues. No real permanent problems in the end.

    Read More

More about Wes Vs. Wess Moore's The Other Wes Moore

Open Document