Discovering Wes Moore Research Paper

The other Wes Moore faced a completely different life experience. Other Wes also struggled through school and never had a strong sense of ambition or aspiration to succeed in life. He later gave into drug dealing pressures at a young age and seemed to have lost all control of his life and his actions. Though his brother Tony had a drastic influence on his decisions, he blamed others for his faults and never took responsibility for his accountabilities. He denied any control over his fate and considered himself a victim due to his occurrences. He lacked any true power and outlook over who he will become and what his future will hold. When it comes to the concept of a vice, Wes Moore made two major mistakes that will follow him for the rest

He had a friend named Shea, who was working as a runner for a drug enterprise. Shea was a good friend to Moore besides the fact that he was a runner and always he was the one that Moore first tagged a building with. Whenever Shea asked Moore if he wanted to tag with him his thoughts were, “I couldn’t say no. First off, Shea was one of the most respected young hustlers in the neighborhood. He was a worker, we all knew that- and while some of the kids were smart enough to be disgusted by what he did, other kids, even the ones who weren’t in the game, respected his position. Plus, I loved throwing my name up on a wall; it felt like splashing in the shallow end of the criminal pool.” (Moore 80.) After reading this it changed my view on Moore because he liked doing these things, so it isn’t Wes’s friends that are bad influences on him. Moore is a bad influence on himself at this point, he likes to tag and he enjoys the feeling he gets after he does

These circumstances left Wes without the means of any type of positive influence from a responsible adult. Therefore, providing a formula of destruction, which in turn enabled him to search for his needs to be met on the streets. This choice he made to find love and acceptance on the streets, aided in Wes’ ability to make unwise decisions. Other Wes did have an opportunity to improve but because of all the responsibilities he had accrued due to his unwise decisions, he was unable to succeed. Inevitably, he fell back into his old patterns of behavior and is now serving life in prison for the murder of a police

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.

One reason why Wes Moore the author is successful is his family who pushed him to succeed. Wes mother always tried to set good examples for him; she wanted him to succeed in life and be educated. Wes states, "When we 're young, it sometimes seems as if the world doesn 't exist outside our city, our block, our house, our room. We make decisions based on what we see in that limited world and follow the only models available."(Wes Moore 178). This quote relates to his mother because its explaining how we do stuff based on what we see and how we are educated. When Wes was in high school he was skipping class and not paying any attention. At a time, Wes’s mother found out about his bad grades and made a big change in Wes life by sending him to military school. In the scene, Wes’s mother states “Wes you are not going anywhere until you give this place a try. I am so proud

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.

Personal responsibility in each individual 's lives is seen to make all the difference in their "final destinies" as indicated by the book (Moore & Smiley, 2010). The "other Wes Moore" makes the conscious decision of using crime in achieving his end. All the personal decisions he makes as he grows into adulthood, are based on the values he adopts along the way according to Moore and Smiley (2010), reinforcing the need to instill the correct values and attitudes in their lives at early stages of their lives. After making "four attempts to escape from the military school within a period of five days", the "lucky" Wes Moore decides to stay, focusing on performing in his study at the school (Moore & Smiley, 2010). The decision lays the foundation for success in all future endeavors as he learns to accomplish his goals with each challenge (Sragow, 2010). The change of attitude towards his situation in juxtaposition with the "other Wes Moore 's" reaction to

he perspective presented in the book "The Other Wes Moore" was economic injustice. Both Wes Moores were somewhat poor. They both didn't live in the nicest homes and couldn't afford the nicest things. This particularly affected Wes when him, Mary, and Tony moved schools to go to a much nicer one, where kids had much nicer things. Wes' old school had a 70% drop out rate, Tony being part of that percentage. Wes saw some headphones he really liked one day. He asked the boy how he got them and the boy introduced Wes to the drug game. Selling drugs offered a way for Wes to afford the luxuries his family couldn't afford, like headphones and new nikes. Wes' poverty lead him to sell drugs and later lead him to murders and robberies. The other Wes Moore's

While Wes Moore was able to change his situation and begin to make better decisions, the other Wes Moore was never able to accomplish such task. During one of their conversations, the incarcerated Wes said, "From everything you told me, both of us did some pretty wrong stuff when we were younger. And both of us had second chances. But if the situation or the context where you make the decisions don't change, then second chances don't mean much, huh?" (66). In the same conversation, about ¼ of the way into the book Moore realized an important aspect in life, "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.'" (Moore 67).

When I was first told that I had to read The Other Wes Moore, I told myself "Great, another boring book to read" as I am not a reader. However, I was wrong; this story about two boys around the same age, same name, raised by single mothers and around the same neighborhood, but as they grew to be adults due to the choices they made, they had different outcomes in life. I was able to actually relate to some parts of the book and knew how they felt at the moment and for me, that is what a great book is about.

Living in the Bronx, he attended a private school, where he would always be reminded of him being one of the only two blacks in the ‘white school’. Therefore, as his grades start to slip, his mother becomes more alarmed about the next step she should take regarding him. Because his family did not want Wes Moore to fall into any illegal trouble in the Bronx, they managed to fund his career at Valley Forge Military School. Not knowing the sacrifices his family made for him to be able to attend military school, Moore started to think of ways to escape. He trusted a stranger at Valley Forge to give him directions to escape, but there he stood tricked, “Bastard, I thought. The directions he had given me were fake.They’d led me nowhere but to the middle of the woods.” (93). After being caught and talking to his mom back home, Wes started to realize the importance of why he was there. This incident is explained very clearly to prove how one wrong decision can change and destroy a life forever. In this case, Wes was saved from falling into that trap which could have ended his life just like the other Wes Moore’s. Soon enough, Wes started to train to become a paratrooper. “An excited nervousness overwhelmed me. It had been a little more than a year since I decided to make the Army a fundamental part of my future.” (130). Due to the confessions made by his mom about the sacrifices, Wes

Wes was not good at school, so he decided to skip and his teacher helped him because the class ran smoother without him there. Moore says, "some days I would check into homeroom; other days I'd head directly back to the train and return to the neighborhood, where I'd meet up with one of the guys who had a similar arrangement"(Moore 77). This shows that when Wes decided to skip school, the decisions changed his life because this was one of the reasons that Wes was sent to military school. Military school is the biggest factor in Wes' life that changed his life forever. If he had never dropped out of school, he would not have gone to military school, and his life would have changed for the worse. The consequences of dropping out of school can lead to something bigger in

While the other Wes Moore took the correct decision that his parents told him too and had a successful life. Even though he didn’t know what he wanted to pursue he had help from admiral people “Have you heard of the Rhodes Scholarship ?”(Mayor Schmoke 161). While on the other hand the other Wes was not surrounded by role models for example his biological father would hit his wife “but his addiction just got worse, and the physical, mental, and emotional abuse he unleashed became more intense.”(pg 9). But overall Wes still had the decision to change but he didn’t he just kept on talking and hanging out with the wrong people even his brother sadly had to be the wrong role model. Later on Wes decided to talk to a couple of girls well sooner or later they became more than just friends and well he got her pregnant but then came the baby and he could not support them financially. So he decided to go back to the drug dealing business. This is where the author shows us that he decided to do the wrong mistake by selling drugs instead he could have done the responsible thing and find a job but he didn’t. While the other Wes Moore became a sergeant of a military school and helped others become a better person. But overall its just the decisions who made them where they are

Wes Moore explain his life events and how he over came all the obstacles. He was a man who grew up just seeing his father twice, and he saw him at four an seeing him die in his face. That when him and his family move to New York, and his attitude change toward life and his family. So his mother sent his to military school and then he went to finish college. Then, a tragic thing happen near the place he was brought up, a police officer with five kids was off duty and he was shot three times. The police officer died on site and it was a national 12 day man hunt. The killers was found and one of their names was Wes Moore, and the Wes Moore that went to college wanted to learn more about him. So, he found out that him and the other Wes Moore had

Wes Moore was a good kid. His parents were Wesley and Joy, who also had two sisters whose names were Nikki and Shani. Wes’s father died at a young age which made him have a hard time growing up especially without a father figure. Wes was sent to military school by his mom which turned his whole life around. His behavior and grades improved and so did his view of life and how to live.