The Other Wes Moore Analysis

When a student is in school, the options for what the student can do in their free time can impact them for the rest of their life. The choices to partake in an extracurricular activity, such as a sport could benefit one in many ways. They can create core values inside a person which then impacts other aspects of their life as well. Sports are able to give one a standard for the way their life should be spent. The ways a sport could influence a person are seen in The Other Wes Moore, giving both sides of the spectrum.

Carol Dweck’s Brainology sets forth the “growth mindset” as the only factor in a student’s success. However, Alfie Kohn’s The Perils of ‘Growth Mindset’ Education: Why We’re Trying to Fix our Kids When We Should Be Fixing the System, proposes another view. Also, Home Life is a third factor that impacts a student’s success. I believe all three of these are integral to a student’s accomplishments.

In the small troublesome city of Baltimore, there grew a set of twins. As a matter a fact, these were twins not by birth, but by heart. There paths intersected when Wes Moore had just finished his bachelors at Johns Hopkins and was headed to Oxford University, when he received a phone call. It was his mother, Joy Moore, as he answered his mother told him that in their neighborhood were many wanted posters of a man named Wes Moore. The poster read, do not approach he is dangerous, contact police. His mother’s anxiety abated when she found out that her son had no connection to the crime. He later went on to write a letter to the other Wes Moore about his past. He started to learn that both had grown up fatherless, they had altercations with the

The situations that both Wes Moore’s experience throughout the story The Other Wes Moore are real life problems that people face each and every day. But what is being done to change this? Every day people fall victim to things such as racism, assimilation, political and economic power, and tokenism. Yet, there are ways to help people who are experiencing problems such as these. The only thing that needs to be done is to have enough people stand up for these problems. Whether the solutions to these problems are macro, or micro, there needs to be some sort of effort to help the people who experience these sorts of oppressions.

“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.

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

Is everything in life based off of decisions, morales, or your environment surrounding you? Who's there for you and who isn't? In the book The Other Wes Moore each Wes Moore’s mother affected both Wes’ lives by trying to be role models and not making poor life decisions by teaching them the value of education, not turning to crime and drugs, and making large sacrifices. Both mothers had a huge part to play in the book in all spectrums trying to leave them on the right path through life and turn to wrong of the world.

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.

In the book The Other Wes Moore, it tells the story of two different men with the same name but different lives. Wes one had a family who loved and cherished him. Wes two however, wasn’t so fortunate, his family did not put the time and effort into spending time with him. I have never had a personal situation like this, but if you grow up like Wes two did, you will do anything in your power to keep who you care about and yourself in good relations. However, I do know a close friend of mine who did as Wes two and chose the wrong path in life. You choose your own life using your own free will and good judgement.

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.

According to Marian Erickson, “Most of life is choices, and the rest is pure dumb luck.” Real people’s lives depend on this quote everyday, which leads to the outcome of each problem individuals face. In the passages, characterization of the main personas helps one understand the theme. Conflict and symbolism also help lead to the overall idea that life is not always guaranteed to be full of success. The book The Other Wes Moore, the poem “If,” and the informational text “The Art of Resilience” all share a common theme of how choices and luck contribute to the success of life.

"Free will and determinism are like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you is determinism. The way you play your hand is free will." Norman Cousins. This quote was the basic underlying moral of the book The Other Wes Moore and the short story The Third and Final Continent. The poem if acts as a guideline for a person’s willpower. The poem If shows the reader the steps to follow to come out of a situation of doubt with sheer-will power. The Other Wes Moore conveys this same theme when the main character breaks out of poverty in a first desperate, but then determined childhood. The Third and Final Continent follows the story of a talented young student and the hardships faced in his unfamiliar new life in The United States of America. These texts, If, The Other Wes Moore, and The Third and Final Continent represent how effort becomes the driving force of success even in improbable circumstances through use of setting, characterization, and conflict.

In The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates ( New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2010), the first Wes tells the story about two kids with the same name and very similar lifestyles, growing up, but ending up in two completely different places with their lives.

Wes Moore grew up being the man of his household. With an absent father, a full-time working mother, and a drug dealing half-brother, Wes’s life was off to a bitter start. He was surrounded by drugs; his mom used drugs to ease her stress, his half-brother got into gang violence because of drugs, and his friends were drug dealers as well. In the book The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, the Other Wes started the drug game at a young age despite his brother and mothers attempts to stop him. Wes grew up in a broken home, harsh streets, and an unmotivating school environment.

A popular debate that dangles over our heads is free will verses determinism? Is our destiny determined by choice or circumstance? Personally, I believe it is a smidgen of both, but overall choice trumps circumstance.