Wes Moore Outlier Analysis

Crime and teen violence (or the lack of it) played humongous parts in determining their future. Wes the author was able to resist the pull of crime even though it was all around him. At any moment, he could have decided to commit and crime that could get him arrested and ruin his chances of accomplishing the many things he was able to. Fortunately for Wes, his hard work and good behavior paid off. Wes writes “I received one of the most prestigious academic awards for students in the world.” (Intro). While this does not directly relate to poverty or crime, it shows that by overcoming the poverty and crime around him, Wes was able to achieve an extremely prestigious award. Sadly, the other Wes Moore is much different. Growing up in poverty and quickly becoming a criminal working the streets of Baltimore, Wes would soon commit a crime that would ruin his life forever. The book says “The other will spend every day until his death behind bars for an armed robbery that left a police officer and father of five dead.”(Intro.). The notion of the prize outweighing the consequence is clearly seen here as Wes goes through with what seems to be a simple heist, but proves to be much MOORE

The author Wes Moore went off to military school where negative environmental influences were cut off and he was able to receive an education, which he himself considers a turning point in his life. His entire atmosphere and the dynamics of the schools he was accustomed to were altered. Although he attempted to run away several times, there was a point after speaking with his mother that he made the decision to stop running and embrace the experience and it helped make him the person he is today. The imprisoned Moore dropped out of school and like the overwhelming majority of African American male drop outs, ended up in the system. While the imprisoned Wes may have not had access to private or military schools, he could have finished school and decided to make an honest living. Later in his life he did decided to earn a GED and learn a trade, but he didn’t make the decision to dedicate himself to turning his life around and as soon as things got difficult turned back to what he knew instead of taking path toward something more positive. He gained mentors working under Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore, and a friend in his former Captain, Ty Hill at the military school. His decision to pursue a life full of criminal activity was his alone.

This true story is based on two African American males who grew up with many similarities but landed a completely different outcome in life. One of the main similarities is their name, Wes Moore. Both Wes Moore’s grew up in a fatherless home, born in the same neighborhood of Baltimore during the 1970’s, and both were handcuffed before age 11. The same question remains. How did one end up as a scholar, veteran, White House Fellow, and business leader and the other one end up serving a life sentence for a robbery that ended in the murder of a police officer? The book reflects how developmental psychology is implemented by focusing on the physical, social, and cultural environments influence developments that occur over time.

A paradigm is a model used to support ideas and claims made by an author. In the book Outliers the author Malcolm Gladwell uses many paradigms to further illustrate his findings. Throughout the book Gladwell discusses success and the things that effect ones chance at becoming successful in life. It is brought to our attention though Gladwell’s use of paradigms that there are many small scale things that can effect ones chances at succeeding. Success is often associated with talent, genetics, and resources but little do people know there are many things that impact ones success.

In the novel The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates it tells the story of two boys with the same name but two very different mindsets in life. “Life and death, freedom and bondage, hang in the balance of every action we take” (xiv). Wes Moore (1), the author, has had many things that impacted to his mindset that led to good and evil choices thought-out his life. Wes Moore (2) had made decisions that set a wrong mindset that would leave him in one place for the rest of his life. The mindsets of Wes Moore (1) and Wes (2) impacted their chances with the law, their choices with education and their opportunities with employment.

In Wes Moore's book, The Other Wes Moore, he describes both his childhood and the early life of another boy of the same name who grew up near the author in the same Baltimore neighborhood. Moore's book explores the reasons why one boy, the author, succeeded in life while the other Wes Moore was overwhelmed by his struggles and will spend his life in prison. The author Wes Moore addresses different topics for the reader to take from the book.The ideas that are presented by him and should be recognised are the environment the boys grew up in, the motivation they got from family, and the influence from not having a father. The author Wes Moore has always had a supportive family while on the other hand the other Wes Moore had no one besides Tony, who even then was a big factor on why Wes is where he is at today. Their environment plays a big role in both of the boy’s life since they both were around the same things. The only difference is that one had a family who got him out of there to an environment that shaped him up to be the man that he is today and the one that never left will be the one that will never leave prison for the rest of his life.

Despite all of his wrong-doings, the other Wes did do some good things. After being “disgusted”(138) by the life around him, Wes decided to get out and “visit his friend, Levy”(138). In discussion the topic of Job Corps came up. This interested Wes, and so he decided he’d go straight. He’d leave his life’s difficulties behind to “attend Job Corps”(141). First Wes had to study for the GED test. Luckily for Wes, “he’d receive his GED within a month”(142). Later, Wes’s interest in carpentry inspired him to “build a house for his daughter”(143). It was believed, while working on the project, the “months had been the most important and enjoyable in Wes’s life”(143). Completing his goals of obtaining his GED and building a house for his daughter caused Wes to feel better about his life. He “learned skills, gained confidence, and finally felt like his life could go in a different direction”(144). Soon, Wes would “graduate from Job Corps”(144) and go on to do his own thing. All his accomplishments got Wes Moore in the right mind and helped him provide for his

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.

In life, we are given obstacles that we must overcome in order to take the right path to success. In this novel, the author tells the readers about the major obstacles and difficulties two boys with similar backgrounds had to endure in the Bronx in order to be where they are today. One of the boys is now living his life behind bars and the other, the author, has made a name for himself. This book explores how these two boys got to where they are today.

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).

In an interview, Malcolm Gladwell once said, “Outliers makes us understand how much of a group project success is. When outliers become outliers, it is not just because of their own efforts. It’s because of the contributions of lots of different people and lots of different circumstances.” Wes Moore is one of the many great examples of a Gladwellian “outlier,” as evinced by his upbringing, extraordinary success, and the rare opportunities he received. From growing up in a broken neighborhood to almost dropping out of school, it seemed as if the author of The Other Wes Moore would follow the same dark path as his criminal counterpart with the same name… but he did not. Wes Moore went on to become a successful graduate of John Hopkins

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).

Throughout the process of how Canadian hockey sport selects their top of the top hockey players for the Memorial Cup, Gladwell proves that these top players are successful not only because of their hard work but also because of the advantage of the earlier birth month which give them more opportunity in the competence compared to others who was born in later month of the year. Gladwell argues that the inequitable “cutoff date matter” as in “other […] areas” (33), for example in education. He urges that our society need to change the way we think of success in which “we miss opportunities to lift others” (32). He also suggests that education system should change to let children “compete” each others whose don’t

It has always been a question for people as to whether their lives are a part of a pre-written destiny or something that can be forged for oneself. Over time, the idea of fate and destiny has been questioned and pondered by everyone. The two book excerpts, The Sports Gene, by David Epstein and, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell detail their views on the matter. While The Sports Gene leans more towards skill being provided by the luck of the genetic draw, Outliers banks more on time spent practicing and developing the skill than he does natural talent. Malcolm Gladwell presents the best argument because he provides more sources when proving the significance of his point.

In the Book Outliers, It introduces the different opportunities a person has depends on the month they become born. It goes on to give examples of Hockey players, However, that was not the main point. Reading on, He describes about the 10000 practice hours. “One can become successful by putting 10000 hours in an activity one is interested in”, meaning people need both time and practice in a thing to be successful in. That's what I understood through the reading, which reminds me in the Article about Stereotypes. In the Article, it explains how the performance of people can decrease because of racial distrust and stereotype threats. Yet, performance can also increase when a project in not influenced by race. Both have to do about performance,