Overcoming Challenges In The Other Wes Moore And The Scarlet Letter

The people and environment that you incorporate into your life affects who you become and the direction in which you develop. An example of this, is seen in the value of education in different areas. In inner city communities, young children are exposed to the high rates of crime and drug activity as well as increased high school dropout rates. Since their primary role models sustain themselves by engaging in illegal activity, the children have nothing else to look up to. This is contrary to the environment on the other side of the city. Since Forest Hills School District is a highly ranked school district in Ohio, students are in a daily environment where graduation rates are high, and teachers are qualified and dedicated to giving students all their academic supplies in order to succeed. This directly correlates to students success in the real world outside of academia due to the positive influences they are surrounded by. The shaping of individuals through their direct environment, is seen in the novels The Other Wes Moore and The Scarlet Letter. The Other Wes Moore follows the differing stories of two men with the same name, but very different fates. The Scarlet Letter follows Hester Prynne, an outcast in the Puritan society of Boston, and her struggle with her sin of adultery. Each of the main characters were affected by the environment and it slowly shaped their identity. The theme of how the environment defines who you become, is displayed throughout The Other Wes

The Other Wes Moore is an autobiographical novel that is told from the heart of author, Wes Moore, while showing an illustrative purpose. One section of his book, in the epilogue, shows Moore diving into a more personal note on the roller coaster of a life he has lived, thus far. He uses his tone and diction to reflect on how the environment people grow up in can influence the ways they act and to explain that the people closest to you can change the opportunities you may have later in life, while using imagery and parallelism to show that no matter who you are or what background you come from, it can’t restrict or confine you from doing extraordinary things.

As Wes says goodbye to his African friends and host community he observes "His tribe's influence in making him a man was obvious and indelible....I realized the journey I took was never mine alone either"(171). The realization that the African tribe was the essential factor in creating extraordinary individuals lead to his realization that his own success’ were accredited to the influence and actions of his parents. Moore’s word choice in the quote allows the reader to deepen their understanding about how actions of others affect personal outcomes. Wes attributes his successful life to the actions taken by his parents, acknowledging that without them his life could have resembled the other Wes Moore’s, full of drugs, violence and ultimately prison. Throughout the entirety of the story Wes recalls the countless actions his parents took in forming, in a similar way Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the sin of a mother as a rudimentary way of shaping her daughter.

The use of literary devices such as direct characterization and imagery help form a theme throughout the comparing novels. In the book The Other Wes Moore environmental influences such as crime, lack of positive role models and drug use, are shown throughout the story. Both Wes’s, face difficult challenges during their early age. Author Wes Moore, encountered the challenge of integration, when his mother enrolled him at John Hopkins University. Wes felt secluded in the sea of white at his new school, the separation from his neighborhood crew was a difficult adjustment. Overtime he began to fail school and blamed it on “my long trip to and from school everyday, my missing father, my overworked

In The Other Wes Moore, the author expresses the striking similarities between him and another man with the same name. The two men are so similar, in fact, that there are very few elements of their lives that set them apart, such as their family histories and personal choices. In writing his book, the author has several target audiences in mind, from young black men to young adults pursuing higher education and people in positions of power. Despite his multiple target audiences, the author has one overall purpose for his book: to show what happens when a person full of potential gives up hope. The story also goes further, showing the importance of both family history and personal choice in the shaping of a person’s future.

The true memoir, The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, describes the lives of two young boys- one boy being the author himself- and the life decisions that they have made which allows them to be in the positions they are currently in. The human thought process, the environmental factors, and the human interactions are not exactly similar in these two males lives and that is simply the differentiation between the author Wes and the imprisoned Wes.

In the memoir The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore, the main character Wes Moore grew up in the rough city of Baltimore, where the future of a typical black male teen is often associated with illegal activities.  Contrary to these discouraging expectations, he went on to become a successful and prominent business leader.  This unusual phenomenon is called being an outlier.  According to Malcolm Gladwell, an outlier is a “scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lies outside of normal experience,”. Wes Moore prevented his dark fate by not following the paths other had with the amount of opportunities he was given.  As Gladwell explained, “Success is the result of what sociologists like to call ‘accumulative advantage”’(30).  Wes Moore was given beneficial opportunities at the right time, along with proper guidance to make sure he was not left astray.  This was not common for people that lived in Baltimore in the 1990s, therefore making him even more of an outlier.  Using evidence from the memoir, The Other Wes Moore

How can two people have the same name and not realize it? They both grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and they both had similar lives growing up but their futures were completely different. One Wes Moore grew up to be successful while the other one landed himself in jail. They both had a similar childhood. They both grew up without a father and they both got themselves into trouble a lot. They grew up in the neighborhoods where a lot of drug deals and violence went on. Each of their mothers wanted the best for them and they made sure they tried as hard as they could to make that happen. In the book, The Other Wes Moore, both Wes Moore’s face similar challenges but one turns out successful and one ends up in jail.

The novel, “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates”, by Westley Moore, is about the lives of two men with similar names, neighborhoods, and growing up in the wrong direction. Westley struggle with academics and behavior; so he was sent to Valley Forge Military School. He ends up as an army officer, a graduate of John Hopkins University, and a White House fellow. Wes struggle financially, which led him to sell drugs, a thief, and a convicted killer. The choice that they make determines the encounters that they deal with. The important factors that caused Westley to become successful in life while Wes ended up in prison for life are support of the mother, military school, and opportunities. Readers should care about this topic because,

Many of us have missteps in our lives, some may define you for the rest of your life and other times they will not. In the books, The Other Wes Moore written by Wes Moore and The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the audience will see how characters in the books make missteps and how they define them. In The Other Wes Moore, the protagonist Wes Moore is caught doing graffiti with his new friend. In The Scarlet Letter, The protagonist Hester Prynne commits adultery and is forced to wear a Scarlet letter “A” on her chest.

The book “ The Other Wes Moore” is a narrative story that shows the lives of two young men whom share the same name; Wes Moore. This book shows how two little boys came to be two very different people. Such as how both of them encountered the problems of drugs in their neighborhoods but how they decided to react. Or how both Wes Moores were successful students at one time in their life but one of them will be behind bars. Also both Wes Moores had encounters with the police during their childhood. But what made the two Wes’ who they are today? Whereas genetics make them who they are, both Wes Moores are impacted by external factors given his role models that surround him , his early life, and his successes and failures in life.

The characters from the book, The Other Wes Moore, shared one name, which was “Wes Moore” but lived two different lives. The Author Wes describes his life by saying, “ I was taught to remember, but never question” and he describes the Other Wes’s life by saying, “ taught to forget and never ask why.” (4). How both characters were taught to live their lives is shown throughout the book as they gained and lost respect throughout their life experiences.

In the book, The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore 2 children, both named Wes Moore grow up in similar situations, but one succeeds in life and grows up to be a veteran (Wes A) and Rhodes Scholar while the other Wes Moore serves a life sentence as a convicted murderer (Wes B). Throughout their stories, there is a strong aspect of honesty in life as well as your family. Wes realizes that success is not defined by your environment, ethnicity or even your financial status. Success is defined through the people closest to you and the bonds you share with them. This can be seen throughout the story such in the lives they lived and the results that followed their actions.

   While allegory is an explicit and tempting reading of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, I see in this novel also the potential of a psychological reading, interpreting it as a search for one’s own self. Both Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne goes through this process and finally succeeded in finding the duality of one's personality, and the impossibility of complementing the split between individual and community identity. However, they were compelled to take different paths on this journey, and they react quite differently when they finally arrive at the conclusion of this search.

Making a mockery of another person can set their lives into a downward spiral. Demeaning somebody can impact their decisions for the rest of their lives. For example, pressuring somebody into doing something they don’t want to do, can impact how they are perceived in the public eye. Shaming someone for one mistake can cause them to not only question themselves, but permanently affect their reputation and identity. Unaware of what might happen, bad decisions can drastically change their future. 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 others toward the wrong path using the literary devices of tone and diction.