“One name, two fates,” that what the author of the Other Wes Moore stated on the cover of his book. Two boys that were born in the same neighborhood in Baltimore, and had a difficult childhood since they both grew up fatherless. The coincidence was that the two boys were called Wes. They both shared a lot of similarities from living in a poor neighborhood and growing up in Baltimore street corners with their squads. However, their futures were completely different as one achieved the impossible and the other was a convicted murderer serving a life sentence. People may think that how could this happen since they both were living the same circumstances. However, in the book Wes Moore, the boys did not have equal opportunities in terms of parenting, education, and environment. 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
The Other Wes Moore is a book about two people with the same name but different lives. Both Wes’s had a few similar experiences and a few different experiences as they were growing up. The author Wes Moore shows both the point of view of him and the other Wes Moore’s experiences through life. Similarities and differences pertaining to becoming a man and the education of both Moores described in The Other Wes Moore. Education was an important role in the life of both the Wes’s because each of them choose what they wanted to do in life.
In the “Introduction” of his book The Other Wes Moore, the author Wes Moore provides a general overview about the story of two kids, who were raised in a same life conditions, same social environment and had even the same name “Wes Moore”, but turned to a totally different life path. While one, the writer, realized an impressive success in his life, the other became a prisoner. In the year 2000, a newspaper published an article about the writer after he received “one of the most prestigious academic awards for student in the word” (xii). In contrast, weeks before that, the same news paper published an article about the armed robbery made by the other Wes Moore and his brother. According to the author, this contradiction is what took his intention
“The Other Wes Moore” written by Wes Moore is an autobiography that tells two stories. Two unrelated humans with two different lives. Both kids grew up in Baltimore and had many similar life experiences. Even though the two kids with similar background and identical social class had nothing to do with each other, their life choices definitely affected their futures.
The Other Wes Moore documents the true life stories of two Black males named Wes Moore that both grew up in broken families located in disadvantaged neighborhoods, but regardless of their similar backgrounds one Wes Moore became a Rhodes Scholar while the other is incarcerated (Moore, 2010). In similar vein, I saw the same parallels with the Wes Moore’s in my own life with having a half-brother with the same name as myself who was incarcerated. Although we were directed toward different trajectories we were only houses apart from each other with an abusive father that simultaneously maintained two families. It could be argued the trajectories were mere coincidence, but my twin sister and I both sustained the same experiences from birth, yet
The Other Wes Moore one name, two fates is a book that focus on two boys with the same name, who grew up in the same living conditions, but ends up in two different places in the future. These two young boys had the same bad experiences, but not the same support system. This causes author Wes to have a positive outcome and become something and the other Wes to go down the wrong path and eventually convicted of murder. The author Wes Moore wanted to influence other young teenage boys to get out of the streets and make a better living.
In the book, The Other Wes Moore written by Wes Moore, shows us a glimpse into two men’s lives growing up in Baltimore in the late 70s. The entire memoir is based off of both of the Wes’ lives, significant stories, and events that lead them to the places they are today. This gives us a peek into how it was like to grow up surrounded by the war on drugs. Wes explains how he wasn’t so far from the other Wes and the chances of him having the same fate wasn’t so far fetched for a large chunk of his life.. We see drugs directly affect both of the boys from selling, to knowing someone addicted. Being around this was normal for both of them; it’s possible the reason the author escaped a similar fate because his mom worked for him to be removed from
The novel, The Other Wes Moore, written by Wes Moore, compares and contrasts the experience of two African American males who were born in Baltimore, Maryland; the novel explores the divergent life paths of these two men who come from similar cultural backgrounds and environments. The author, Wes Moore, begins the novel by explaining about his childhood and the death of his father which impacted his family at a very young age. The author contrasts this with the childhood of the “other” Wes Moore, whose father was not present during his childhood. The novel transitions to the adolescent experience of these boys, describing how schools and the environments of their neighborhoods influenced their transitions from children to adults. The author
According to Wes Moore, “At each stage of [the boys’] young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies” (1). Two young African- American kids lived in the same decaying city and shared the same name: Wes Moore. While one Wes Moore was sentenced to life in prison, the author Wes Moore became a Rhodes Scholar and a best-selling author. Similarities and differences pertaining to life choices and role models of both Moores were described in The Other Wes Moore.
In the book, The Other Wes Moore it is difficult to believe the great similarities in the lives of the two Moores, who share a name and other aspects of life. The two were raised fatherless and were born in the late 1970’s in the neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. They also happen to have encountered similar experiences when growing up, but at one point one of them became a criminal and the other a scholar (the author of the book). The author of the book seems to be interested in the similarities of the two boys as opposed to their different experiences. The story is interesting and makes one imagine what would have become of the writer if he did not by any chance come across the people who guided him to become what
In the book, The Other Wes Moore, the author deliberately talks about the viability of two young individuals who share the same name and went down the same road, but ended in dramatically different paths. Both Wes’s were from Baltimore and came from low income families. They both grew up in a single parent home where they only had their mothers in their lives but not their fathers. The reasons for their fathers not being in the picture are immensely different though. Similarly, they come across critical moments or events that lead to the different circumstances they end up in. Also, the impact that their families had on them was quite different and the way the families reacted to their behavior was nothing alike. I believe the environment in which one is raised in and the people who surround someone has a lot to do with the way one turns out to be. While one of the Wes’s prospers in life and becomes a successful person, the other falls in the hands of their environment and finds the easy way out of it by being in the drug business.
The other Wes Moore is a memoir written by Wes Moore about himself and a man with
The book The Other Wes Moore One Name, Two Fates was written by Wes Moore. The novel consists of two boys who had an identical name: Wes Moore. One gets to experience things he never thought of and the other we will be behind bars until death for a robbery. In this novel, it really shows the difference between the two and how they grew up. They grew up at the same time, on the same streets, and with the same name. Their stories came together and one helped the other. It was a large story that consists of young boys in a chaotic part of history and violent time and apparent to succeed and fail in revolutionary ways. How one takes action for doing good and the other going down the wrong road.
The book I read was called, “The Other Wes Moore” by Wes Moore. Some of the other books that he has written are “This Way Home”, “The Maker”, and “Forcefully Advancing: The Last Hope for America & American Christianity”. This book is a memoir. The definition of a memoir is that it is a written novel based on the author’s experience and perspective. A memoir usually includes an experience the author had felt. In this story, I became aware of the fact that there are two boys with the same name but different fates, which symbolizes different identities. This story takes place in Baltimore, Maryland, which is where the two boys grew up.
The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore (2011), tells the story of two children who grew up in the same neighborhood with the same first and last names. It was not just the neighborhood in which they grew or their names that were the same, however. The two boys engaged in the same activities growing up, being active participants in a difficult neighborhood, engaging in gang activity, and getting into trouble with the police (Moore, 2011). In spite of these similarities in their early life, Wes Moore, the author, had a remarkably different life than the second Wes Moore; in addition to being an author, he has been a Rhodes scholar and is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BridgeEdU a social organization dedicated to increasing the ease through which a high school student can transition to the higher education process (Moore, 2011). Moore’s (2011) case is one that has intrigued many in the field of criminology, in part due to the myriad theories on criminal behavior and the disparities present between the situations of the two boys (Schram, & Tibbetts, 2018). Among the different crinimiological theories or perspectives that are the most in alignment with the situation described in Moore’s (2011) book are those of social learning theory and differential association theory (Schram, & Tibbetts, 2018).
The other Wes Moore definitely is the most powerful, influential, and lifechanging stories that is worth reading. The Other Wes moore, is a story of two children with, same name, very similar lifestyle, and growing environment, but later those two children end up having completely different life. Wes Moore, the author himself tells about facing poverty and how eager was his ambition to receive a proper education. The other Wes Moore, who later got convicted to murder in the first degree and sentenced to a life in jail. The most important fact is that the story of the two Wes Moore can apply to anyone’s life.