Compare And Contrast The Other Wes Moore

Both Weses had several circumstances in common that happened early on in their lives. Moore narrates that he lost his father at a young age due to a medical misdiagnosis. The author says that with the loss of his father, his family had to move to the Bronx to live with his grandparents. The author Wes was the second of three children, and with the absence of his father, his mother Joy had to work multiple jobs to send him and his siblings to school. Moore adds that he was enrolled in a private school but skipped his classes often and was put on academic probation. On the other hand, the

The Other Wes Moore is a book about two young African-American lives that share the same name, Wes Moore. Both Wes Moores grew up with similarities, they both grew up in the same hometown. One of the Wes Moore is free and the other one is spending his life in jail. They both grew up without fathers. The author's father died in front of him when he was just three years old and the other Wes Moore barley knew his dad. The Author's father wasn’t there because he couldn’t be, and the other Wes Moore, father wasn’t there because he chose not to be. Both mothers were working hard towards setting their families and to support and care for their sons.

    One central difference to think about when looking at the two individuals is the fact that Wes has a more supporting mother than Wes (2), in a person’s life a mother is so important and can be looked as a blessing. A mother is the one that supposed to be the person that takes great care of you and guides you,  and to teach what’s right from wrong. The author’s mother was much more supportive for her son, Wes acknowledges, “Every time I looked  around at the buildings and the trees and the view of the river, I was reminded of the sacrifices my mother was making to keep me there.” (Moore 52). Due to this quote, we can conclude that Wes’s mother, although struggling at the time, found a way to put her child in the best possible route in education. Wes presents it as kind of an understatement, however, from his mother doing this, it affects his life so much. By being put in a excellent school, it offers many more opportunities than that of the other Wes and he can gather a lot more help/exposure to guide him toward a bright future. On the other hand, we have Wes (2) that is lost and seems as if he just can’t find his way, “Young boys are more likely to believe in themselves if they know that there’s someone, somewhere, who shares that belief. To carry the

Everyone comes from their own environment and their environment shapes them into the individual the become. In the nonfiction book, The Other Wes Moore, the author Wes Moore depicts the lives of two parallel individuals with the same name but living two extremely different lives because of the environments they are raised in. Wes Moore and Wes Moore are the byproduct of two similar environments, where one Wes ends up in prison while the other manages to escape his predetermined future and has a successful career and accomplished many things. Many believe that one’s future is predetermined by the environment they are raised in, and the result of Moore’s life reaffirms the claim through following the norm of his environment and earning a life

The reasoning as to why I believe the other Wes Moore could have went down a path to success is if the other Wes Moore had the same family support as the author Wes Moore and if his brother who had a big influence on Wes, was not involved in the drug game. While both Wes Moore’s are both fatherless, the author Wes Moore was a lot luckier than the other Wes Moore, because he had his grandparents to help raise him. With the support of his grandparents, Wes had someone to look after him and also help steer him in the right direction if needed. His grandparents gave Wes and his sisters a set of rules and chores to do every single day. Compared to the other Wes Moore, he did not have any sort of discipline or rules to go by in his house due to the fact his mother and brother were never really at home. Furthermore, with the other Wes Moore, he only had his mother and his brother Tony, who both were not a good influence on him at all. The other Wes Moore looked up to his brother and wanted to be exactly like Tony. For example, when Wes got into a small

Their mothers were very influential to how the Moore’s lives turned out. Wes’s mother was not around much and left Wes with his brother, Tony. Tony was often involved with drugs, dangerous situations, and not very good people. So Wes grew up around strong drug abuse, addiction, and crime because his mother was often gone. At a young age, he learned about these drugs that his

Have you ever wondered why people in the same environment sometimes end up going down different paths? Author Wes Moore explores this topic in his book The Other Wes Moore One Name, Two Fates. In this case the Author ends up being a renowned scholar while the other Wes Moore ends up being a convicted felon. The opening setting of the book starts off with the author and Wes living in somewhat of the same environment, no father, living with just their mom, they both have siblings, both grew up in baltimore, and both of them came from low income families. Living in a lower income community ridden by drug use and drug violence these two young men are put to the test by their surroundings. The way they respond is very important to their future.

At some point people lose control of who they are and become a figment of the ones they surround themselves with. Who are they really? Are they the same sweet person that calls their mother everyday or are they the local school drug dealer? People walk around judging others based on their appearance and social status instead of who they really are. No one really knows how that person was raised or what town they grew up in. Life is a big guessing game. People judge and stare but do they really know? Do they really know what that person thinks about or where their biggest fear lies? The book The Other Wes Moore presents a long line of people playing the life guessing game. Both mothers of the Moore boys thought they knew their kids, the ones they raised to be gentlemen. However, with the rise of drug dealing in their town, both boys quickly became involved. In that time, not only did their grades and attendance in school drop, but also the happiness in their mothers soon fell to the floor. Before author Wes was shipped to military school, his mother was unsure of her son. “I would never hit my mother. But in my room, at that moment, she was not so sure” author Wes writes (88). Wes had grown taller than his mother and had also grown farther apart in understanding. Then again, was that who Wes really was or was he falling into pure pressure? From reading the text, it seems as though people have a strenuous time

Making a mockery of another person can set their lives into a downward spiral. Demeaning somebody can impact their life decisions for the rest of their lives. Both, Hester Prynne and the “other” Wes Moore, were victims of public ridicule and unreasonable expectations, pushing them towards the wrong path. Hawthorne and Moore capture these similarities of characters by using similar literary devices in their writing. Both authors, Moore and Hawthorne, demonstrate how public ridicule and expectations can push you toward the wrong path using the literary devices of tone and diction.

Wes did not have a father. The only older male figure in his life was his brother who was always in the streets. Wes learned what it was to be a “man” and its roles by those who he

“I sat back, allowing Wes's words to sink in. Then I responded, "I guess it's hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances"(Page 67). In "The Other Wes Moore" the environment of both Wes Moore's were completely different from each other. They both made some stupid decisions over time but who is perfect? It is expected of everyone to make some mistakes, in my opinion the main influence on their choices came from their environment. In their environment they had peers that would influence them to do things that they did not necessarily want to do. This caused them to get into trouble, but at the same token, their environment also gave them some opportunities to make it through some rough times. For Example: Wes #2

In order to help the author Wes, Joy sent him to military school because she knew that the choice she made for her son would ensure that her son would be able to go into the world completely disciplined and prepared even if he hated her for sending him away. When explaining how the book was written, the author acknowledged, “This book is meant to show us how… our destinies can be determined by a single stumble down the wrong path, or a tentative step down the right one” (Moore xiv). She made the decision as a mother for her son’s entire future that ends up stopping him from making decisions like the other Wes Moore’s. The author acknowledges that the decisions he made and the decisions that the other Wes made affected their lives forever when he said, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that mine could have been his” (Moore 180). The other Wes Moore made poor decisions in his youth that led to a continuous use of drugs, alcohol, and unprotected sex. These decisions ultimately led to Wes being put into jail, hurting the ones he loved and changing his future

In conclusion, both Wes Moore’s had critical moments and different standpoints throughout the entirety of their lives. Though they both had individual accountabilities it was the choices that they individually made that ultimately determined there fates. “Wes and I stared at each other for a moment, surrounded by the evidence that some kids were forced to become adults prematurely. These incarnated men, before they’d even reached a point of basic maturity, had flagrantly-and tragically-squandered the few opportunities they’d

Whether you agree with Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, or Erik Erickson, theoretical approaches to human nature all agree that early childhood years play a major part of our conscious and unconscious decisions we make. For instance, even though both Wes Moore’s were brought up without a father in their home, the reality is that these absences meant something different to each of them. For Wes 1 his father died an unnecessary death due to lack of training of emergency personnel. He remembered his dad as being compassionate, loving, and kind. Wes 1 always knew that if given the choice, his father would have stood by him throughout his life. Wes 2, however, is left with negative fatherly feelings. In the three times they were together, his own father acted as though he didn’t recognize him. What’s worse is that Wes 2 knew that his dad didn’t want to know him, he chose to leave. That left not only a hole where there should have been a very important role model, it left rejection in its place. When Wes 1 was visiting Wes 2 in the jail and asked about the impact his father had on his life, the second Wes said, “Your father wasn’t there because he couldn’t be, my father wasn’t there because he chose not to be. We’re going to mourn their absence in different ways” (Moore page 3). Later in the chapter Wes 1 gets emotional thinking about how he misses his father. He was left,

Throughout “The other Wes Moore”, The Wes’ were faced with surprisingly similar situations that were handled in very different ways. These situations were key turning points in each of their lives and shaped them into who they are. Even though each Wes had hardships in their environment and faced many trials and tribulations, ultimately, their choices during these times are what produced each Wes. Because of their series of different choices that each Wes Moore made during their lifetime and the outcome of their choices, we are not just products of our environments, but also products of the choices we make.