Moments of decisions
The decisions we make in life lead us to where we are in life and, determine whether you’re successful or become another statistic, or as people say, a product of our environment. . Are the expectations we have for ourselves, and the expectation that other people have for us, what motives, pushes, and guides us to the decisions we make? The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore is about two boys with similar backgrounds and, situations growing up in Baltimore just blocks apart. The boys only had one major difference that strongly influenced their futures: their mothers. The information provides raw insight into the decisions and actions made by the Other Wes Moore when he
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He was doing pretty well, but was cocky. His mother did notice a significant change in him. Even though he now liked military school, he still had many mixed feelings about being there. He thought he should be home with family and friends, but the day he and his friend walked into town to get something to eat was the day his journey into manhood began. As they walk a car pulled up on them. They didn’t know who it was, but tried to get away fast. They pulled off but return trying to running them over. They jumped out of the way. After they thought the coast was clear they continued to the pizza shop. Suddenly they were surprised by someone called out, “go home nigger”. In that moment was when I see the change in Wes. He thought about his mother and father and he knew he was support to walk away. In this case run away! This is the day that he finally lived up to the name his father gave me. This was his first real move into manhood.
When the other Wes and his friends were out hanging on the blocks of Baltimore they ended up in an altercations with some boys in the neighborhoods while playing a game of Football. One of the boy said Wes was pushing too hard and being too aggressive. He got in Wes’s face and bumped his chest, suddenly the boy hit Wes square in the face after a few words were said. He then through his hands up to block his face in case the boy tried to hit him
As a direct result of his years at the military school, Wes graduated high school on time and continued his education. On the other hand, “Other” Wes did not graduate from high school. Rather than attempt to turn his life around, “Other” Wes turned to a life of pushing drugs and committing crimes, a lifestyle that would later result in long prison sentences for him. This is a result of him not receiving any effective disciplinary action from his mother or any other important role models in his life because rather than try to live his life according to any standard set for him early in life, he disregarded the law and those around him. Author Wes’s self-discipline, family discipline, and military discipline all resulted in him having a prosperous life starting immediately after he graduated. He eventually attended college and interned at the Baltimore city's mayor's office. While the “other” Wes had no discipline in his life which led it to spiral out of control. After trying getting back into selling drugs, “other Wes” committed a robbery with his brother Tony which went from bad to worse when it resulted in the death of a policeman who had taken up a second job as a security guard at the jewelry store Wes
The author reveals that he hung out with the wrong people which afforded him to be arrested by the police due to vandalism. Because of this incident, the author Wes was sent to Valley Forge, a military school in Philadelphia. The author claims that the author Wes had a difficult time at first and had tried to escape the school several times; but when he discovered that his mother and his grandparents sacrificed a lot just to send him there, he decided to stay and eventually became a platoon leader. However, Moore states that the other Wes got involved with the use and distribution of drugs, like his brother Tony. The author mentions that the other Wes got his girlfriend pregnant and adds that the news of early fatherhood made him frustrated. Moore states that the other Wes stopped attending school and expanded his drug selling business. The author states that the other Wes was arrested for selling drugs to a police
“Too many people have sacrificed in order for you to be there” (Moore95) Moore did not grasp regarding those phase that his mother and his grandparents sacrifice for him to go to military school. Due to his mom’s fast thinking and dedication to his success, Wes was saved from becoming involved with drugs on the streets of his neighborhood. Other Wes Moore had no significant positive role models in his life. His one brother that he looked up to for guidance, was a drug dealing hood rat himself that had no time for his little brother Wes. His mother was the only positive role model he had left to look up to, and she was too busy working to keep the family afloat financially.
Parenting played a big role in shaping the two boys lives. Having a parental mentor is important because they assist and guide children to take the right decisions about their lives. The author had his two parents at the beginning of his life. Also, the author’s parents, especially his mother, tried to raise him in an effective way wanting him to know the right from wrong at an early age. “No mommy loves you, like I love you, she just wants you to do the right thing” (Moore 11). This quote was a live example of the author’s life with his parents. It reflected the different ways his parents used to teach him “the right thing.” Though his mother was upset from his action toward his sister, his father
During the two Wes Moore’s teenage years, they had run ins with people that turned violent. Part of how they reacted to these situations are attributed to what their peers are doing and where they live but how they overcome, or fail to overcome these obstacles helped put each of them where they are today. When Wes had a run in with Ray for sleeping with Ray’s cousin, Ray put a pretty big beating on him, but it was how Wes chose to react that put a nail in his coffin.
A person’s success or failure can be determined by their environment, education, choices; a number of different things. The autobiography The Other Wes Moore takes a look at two boys with the same name and eerily similar circumstances who end up in very different places in life. Wes Moore spoke at convocation about his book and what he hoped that people would get from it. In the book he says “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” (Moore xi). These two men didn’t share the same fate because they each made a choice about what they wanted their life to become. The book truly demonstrates how the choices you make, make you. One Wes
“The Other Wes Moore” is a story that follows two boys with the exact same name who start off living very similar lives in Baltimore, Maryland. One of the boys live on to be an extremely successful man and the other one is living the rest of his life behind bars. The two men wondered how their strikingly similar path diverged into two completely different fates and then an argument formed. Are people products of their choices or their environment and expectations thrown upon them? The book proves that people are products of their choices. Both Wes Moores were raised by a single mom in the tough streets of Baltimore and they both were rebellious children who got arrested at a young age. Their similarities lessened as their choices and their mom’s choices contrasted. The more fortunate Wes was sent to Military school and he chose to make the most of it and become the best version of himself. His determination and hard work trumped his previous hooligan mindset, therefore his future was bright and fulfilling. The other Wes chose to follow his brother,
Wes #1 grew up without his father; his father died near the beginning of the story with a rare disease. Wes #1 did not understand the responsibility that he would have to uphold until he got older because he was only three years old. Wes #1 needed a father figure because he needed a manly structure in his life. Even though Wes already had a loving mother, willing to play both roles as a mother and father, a mother can only do but so much. Young men need fathers/father figures because they help out with the things mothers can not explain. This takes us back to the subject of environment and family, because Wes #1 had a environment that strived off of respect, he had a family that strived off of doing the right thing.
“This is a story of two boys living in Baltimore with similar histories and an identical name: Wes Moore. One of us is free… The other will spend every day until his death behind bars...” (Moore, XI) In The Other Wes Moore, the author, Wes Moore, and the other Wes Moore both grew up in similar, yet different, circumstances and had completely different outcomes. This captivating narrative demonstrates how the choices you make, make you. In the introduction, the author Wes Moore validates this statement by saying, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” (Moore XI) The author, Wes Moore, shows the readers that a person’s environment, circumstances, education (or lack
In Wes Moore's book, The Other Wes Moore, he describes both his childhood and the early life of another boy of the same name who grew up near the author in the same Baltimore neighborhood. Moore's book explores the reasons why one boy, the author, succeeded in life while the other Wes Moore was overwhelmed by his struggles and will spend his life in prison. The author Wes Moore addresses different topics for the reader to take from the book.The ideas that are presented by him and should be recognised are the environment the boys grew up in, the motivation they got from family, and the influence from not having a father. The author Wes Moore has always had a supportive family while on the other hand the other Wes Moore had no one besides Tony, who even then was a big factor on why Wes is where he is at today. Their environment plays a big role in both of the boy’s life since they both were around the same things. The only difference is that one had a family who got him out of there to an environment that shaped him up to be the man that he is today and the one that never left will be the one that will never leave prison for the rest of his life.
Wes’s decision to leave school for an easier life of street dealing guided him down a path of misfortunes. The first of many came with his violent outburst to defend his pride. After a woman in relations with Wes Moore sees her boyfriend show up to his house, he angrily punches Wes in the face. In shock, Moore “could only see red. He was blind with rage. Instincts kicked in. Tony’s words rang through his mind. Send a message” (104). Proceeding the attack, he grabbed a gun out of his drawer and shot the man to prove a point that you do not mess with him. He was incarcerated for six months. To no surprise, what occured later in his life was the infamous shooting of a police officer in the midst of a robbery. This landed Wes Moore in a life sentence for murder. It all started with drug dealing and ended in indefinite incarceration for murder.
Through Wes Moore’s The Other Wes Moore, the author tells the story of himself and another man with the same name and a strikingly similar upbringing. In chapter 6 it is revealed that the parental and authority figures in both their lives greatly affected and shaped who they became. By comparing and contrasting the tough choices they made, complications they face at home and at school, and their new authoritative positions, the author uses the two Wes Moore’s lives in Chapter 6 to appeal to pathos, allowing the reader to feel a connection with each character and develop an understanding of both Moore’s accomplishments and hardships.
How do two boys with the same name who live within the same community end up with lives on two completely different paths? The author, Wes Moore, begins life in a tough Baltimore neighborhood and ends up a Rhodes Scholar, Wall Streeter, White House Fellow, etc. The other Wes Moore starts in the same place in Baltimore but ends up in prison FOR LIFE.
One’s childhood has a lasting impact on their entire life. Moore’s upbringing and the loving family he was born into, no matter how trivial it may seem, greatly contributed to his success. Wes seemingly grew up the same as any other kid in the Bronx – in a single-parent household, surrounded by bad influences… what separated him from the crowd? His support system: his family, and their ultimate support and sacrifices made all the difference. As a teenager, Wes seemed to be going down the wrong path. He constantly skipped school, his academic failures were overwhelming, and he was even arrested for vandalism. In the case of the other Wes, his family simply let these actions slide, and decision after decision ultimately landed him with a life sentence in prison. The author Wes’s mother, however, refused to allow this behavior to continue. As a method of intervention, she forced Moore to attend Valley Forge, and in doing so, probably saved his career. The extent of his family’s sacrifice was evident on page 95 when Wes realized that “my grandparents took the money they had in the home in the Bronx, decades of savings and mortgage payments, and gave it to my mother
The story the Other Wes Moore: One name Two fates by Wes Moore is about two boys who grew up in the same family situation without a father and in the same neighborhood. The two boys grew to live completely different lives, the other Wes Moore was given a life sentence for murder while Wes became a Wealthy businessman in Washington DC. The businessman Wes chooses the correct path culturally and socially unlike the other Wes. The Other Wes lived the life of stealing not because he wanted to but he had to to survive. The other Wes economically didn't have the support from his mother and