The Other Wes Moore

In his book, “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” Wes Moore (2011) tells a true story about two men from Baltimore who have identical names but have different outcomes in life. He also illustrates the similarities of their life’s situations when they were younger, the decisions they made in life and their impacts, and the roads they took that ultimately led them to where they are today.

In The Other Wes Moore, both Wes and the author, Moore, faced challenges because of things such as poverty, housing, and education. In terms of Wes, he had it much worse. In the first chapter of the book, when Wes is talking about his father, he says, “By Saturday afternoon we found out that he had died from acute epiglottis, a rare but treatable virus that causes the epiglottis to swell and cover the air passages to the lungs. Untreated because of the earlier misdiagnosis, my father’s body suffocated itself” (Moore 15). This is the first big event that occurred in Wes’s life that definitely influenced the person he turned into.

Many know of the tune “It’s a Small World” played at the Disney Parks. It’s lyrics repeat, “It’s a small world after all,” over and over until you have it cemented in your brain for eternity (but that’s beside the point). These lyrics connect with the book, The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, because of how closely connected two men living in Baltimore were. Both men named Wes Moore with a father out of the picture made it an oddly “small world.” But although they had very similar upbringings, their lives took extremely different paths. Three key differences that make them different are: why their fathers weren’t apart of their lives, what they grew up around, and how their mother’s dealt with troubled kids.

In the novel, The Other Wes Moore, Moore discovers the way people shape our lives and influence our future by examining the effects of family support, influence from peers, and his experience with authoritative figures in his life. He sees this through the story of the other Wes Moore. A young man who grew up a product of his environment, single mother, and a brother who was to involved with the bad life to be of any help to him. With this Wes Moore's life was sentenced to where he is now. The author is astonished by the fact that although their paths significantly differed they weren't always so different.

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

The Other Wes Moore is a book about two young African-American lives that share the same name, Wes Moore. Both Wes Moores grew up with similarities, they both grew up in the same hometown. One of the Wes Moore is free and the other one is spending his life in jail. They both grew up without fathers. The author's father died in front of him when he was just three years old and the other Wes Moore barley knew his dad. The Author's father wasn’t there because he couldn’t be, and the other Wes Moore, father wasn’t there because he chose not to be. Both mothers were working hard towards setting their families and to support and care for their sons.

The reasoning as to why I believe the other Wes Moore could have went down a path to success is if the other Wes Moore had the same family support as the author Wes Moore and if his brother who had a big influence on Wes, was not involved in the drug game. While both Wes Moore’s are both fatherless, the author Wes Moore was a lot luckier than the other Wes Moore, because he had his grandparents to help raise him. With the support of his grandparents, Wes had someone to look after him and also help steer him in the right direction if needed. His grandparents gave Wes and his sisters a set of rules and chores to do every single day. Compared to the other Wes Moore, he did not have any sort of discipline or rules to go by in his house due to the fact his mother and brother were never really at home. Furthermore, with the other Wes Moore, he only had his mother and his brother Tony, who both were not a good influence on him at all. The other Wes Moore looked up to his brother and wanted to be exactly like Tony. For example, when Wes got into a small

Bad Influences, Stressful Situations, and Abandonment led to the incarceration of the Other Wes Moore. The Other Wes Moore was a man that lived in the same neighborhood as the successful Wes Moore, but he had more negatives than positives in his life, which causes him to be influenced by all of the bad influences.

It is on a daily basis that people are forced to make decisions as to whether or not they will chose to rise above their challenges and it is these decisions that affect the outcomes of many lives. Each person is presented with their own difficulties and they are given the option to either overcome these difficulties, or let them stand in the way of success. Whether presented by society, certain individuals, or even oneself, the conquering of challenges is what leads many people to their greatest achievements. The main characters in both The Other Wes Moore and The Scarlet Letter learn to overcome their difficulties and it is because of this that they are bettered as individuals. In The Other Wes Moore, written by Wes Moore, Wes is forced to overcome his challenges presented by racist teenagers and his prestigious military school. Wes Moore captivates the importance of overcoming his challenges by using direct characterization and tone. Nathaniel Hawthorne also uses these literary devices to express Hester Prynne’s ability to conquer challenges put forth by her Puritan society in The Scarlet Letter. Through the use of tone and direct characterization, the authors of The Other Wes Moore and The Scarlet Letter are able to exemplify their theme of the importance of one’s ability to rise above their challenges.

The autobiography The Other Wes Moore was written by a man who was comparing the lives of two men, the author himself and another man who, coincidentally, had the same name. In an attempt to eliminate any confusion, I need to clarify to which Wes Moore I am referring, so, I will refer to the author as Wes 1 and the other Wes Moore will be referred to as Wes 2. It took me a few minutes to decide what to call them since my initial reaction was to say Good Wes and Bad Wes. However, if this course on cultural competence has taught me anything, it’s to not label people. I see now that these two men lived their lives making the best decisions they felt they could have made at the time, and I realize that terms such as “good” or “bad” are misleading and disrespectful. The similarities between the two are obvious from the start; both men are black, both were raised in Maryland, both had to grow up without the presence of a father, and both grew up in poverty. By looking at several social issues we can see how different types of support and opportunities made the difference between the paths of these men. I believe that through their family relationships, their environments, and their experiences their attitudes regarding their ethics and values were shaped, which, in turn, defined their choices.

The other Wes Moore is also considered to be deviant by his poor decision-making and careless choices. He dropped out of school, sold drugs, participated in a robbery of a jewelry store, and was a convicted murderer with a life sentence. There was many sociological factors that led to the other Wes Moore’s deviant behavior; the absence of his father being an important factor. Although both the author Wes Moore and the other Wes Moore grew up without a father, it affected the other Wes Moore a little more considering the fact that his father chose not to be in his life. Also, Tony had a big impact on the decision he made for himself. Throughout the story, Wes would remember what Tony told him about demanding respect. “Send a message,” And Wes would do as Tony said. The problem with the other Wes Moore was that he lacked positive influences in his life and he had no motivation to live a better life until it was too late.

The book, The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore tells a story about two men with the same name and last name but with different outcomes. The author tells his story and the other Wes Moore’s story, how they started off in the same neighborhood and made similar choices but one ended up in prison for life and the other with his freedom. There are several reasons that the two Wes Moores ended up in different situations such as the way their mothers raised them and the different choices that were made by them throughout their life as young adults. The statement that the author wrote at the end of the book is true to the extent that they both grew up in the same type of neighborhood and both were raised by single mothers.

One name, two different people with two different fates based on life choices. The Other Wes Moore is a story about two men with the same name, who both grew up in West Baltimore. The town was crime-ridden, and both the author and Wes struggled with school. Both boys were in instances with the law, however, while the author learned from his encounter with police, the other Wes Moore didn’t and he continued in his drug dealing ways. The author went to military school to learn respect and discipline, attributes the other Wes lacked. The reader notices the author’s tone when “My mother had noticed the way I had changed since leaving for military school…They made it clear that they cared if I succeeded, and eventually so did I,” (Moore 115). As the author used the scene of military school to portray his tone of optimism. While the author was making something of his life, and overcoming his obstacles, the other Wes Moore suffered and made horrible mistakes. The other Wes became a drug dealer with power, the power that went to his head. After he found his girlfriend, Cheryl, overdosed at his house, he realized the drug game was wrong. He soon entered the Job Corps, wanting to create something of himself. However, as the stress of his new job and caring for his children was demanding,

    Humans have come to a conclusion that all lives are different, but all go through many hardships and tragedies. The impact from a slight difference can vary to be very vast to very small, such a slight difference, however, can change a person’s life as a whole. In the book, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore there is a difference that can be identified between the author’s life and that of the other Wes. This difference, though can be very critical and is ultimately able to lead to a path of triumph or failure for an individual. The lack of involvement a mother has for their child can fundamentally deprive them from succeeding, and parent involvement has the opportunity to

The Other Wes Moore The Other Wes Moore is a book about two children with similar lifestyles when they were growing up and the same names, but ending up in different places in their lives. The story is about the other Wes Moore, who was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment and Wes Moore, the author, who faces poverty and has an ambition of receiving proper education (Moore, 2012).