Why Are Wes Currently In Prison

In this quote, “the other” Wes Moore’s mother, Mary, is telling her son and older brother of Wes, Tony, that Wes has already been arrested and taken by the police. Wes was arrested for shooting another teenaged boy named Ray after Ray beat up Wes since Alicia was at his house. This quote is true both literally and metaphorically, as Wes seems “gone” with his arrest, possible parenthood, and dealing of drugs have led him to the losing of his freedom and family. This quote fits quite well with chapter five “Lost”.

The author reveals that he hung out with the wrong people which afforded him to be arrested by the police due to vandalism. Because of this incident, the author Wes was sent to Valley Forge, a military school in Philadelphia. The author claims that the author Wes had a difficult time at first and had tried to escape the school several times; but when he discovered that his mother and his grandparents sacrificed a lot just to send him there, he decided to stay and eventually became a platoon leader. However, Moore states that the other Wes got involved with the use and distribution of drugs, like his brother Tony. The author mentions that the other Wes got his girlfriend pregnant and adds that the news of early fatherhood made him frustrated. Moore states that the other Wes stopped attending school and expanded his drug selling business. The author states that the other Wes was arrested for selling drugs to a police

The first time Wes had met his father was while his mother was dropping him off at his grandmother's which was from his father side and his father was there unexpectedly. The second time was when he was with Tony and they had decided to stop at his aunt’s which was also from his father’s side and they had run into each other. An absent father had affected Wes because he was left alone with just his mother, “Tony, spent most of his time with his maternal grandparent’s or his father in the Murphy Homes project in West Baltimore. Wes was the man of the house.” This quote tells that Wes has an older brother that isn’t around which leaves Wes to be “the man” of the house even though he is still a young boy. Without his father Wes had also no role model except for his brother Tony, Tony didn’t want Wes to make the same mistakes he did by going into the drug business. He was also affected by an absent father because without him he didn’t know how to treat women and he ended up just learning from what he has seen from the people around him. He had ended up getting a girl pregnant and they lived in his aunt’s house and they were living off of his drug

Their mothers were very influential to how the Moore’s lives turned out. Wes’s mother was not around much and left Wes with his brother, Tony. Tony was often involved with drugs, dangerous situations, and not very good people. So Wes grew up around strong drug abuse, addiction, and crime because his mother was often gone. At a young age, he learned about these drugs that his

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.

i. The similarities with the Other Wes’s mother was that she too was never home, but the contrast lye with the mistake she made with leaving Tony as the only guardian. “Wes, now eight years old, was free from any adult supervision till then. His brother, six years older, was the closest thing Wes had to a caretaker during the daylight hours and was fiercely protective of the little brother who idolized him. But lately even Tony hadn’t been around much (Moore 26).”

Wes 2 remembered that his mother liked to go out dancing and partying with her friends at clubs. She showed herself to be a bad role model several times. One thing she did was going from one abusive relationship to the next. By the end of the book she had three children with three different fathers. She even had her last boyfriend, who was married to another woman, practically living with her and her sons. She would say with her words that she was against using drugs, however, when Wes 2 found the marijuana in her pocket he found out the truth. He also found himself trying to emulate and prove himself to his older brother, Tony, who was also a walking contradiction. Not only did Tony deal with drugs, he dropped out of school, and taught Wes to solve problems with physical force. His words were of encouragement for a better future for his brother, but his actions proved that he didn’t believe better was possible. The author writes “Wes didn't think Tony was a hypocrite exactly--he knew why his brother felt obliged to warn him off. But it was clear that Tony didn't have any better ideas or he would've made those moves himself” (Moore page 71). Wes 2 was learning through what he saw being lived out through his mother and

The officers then find them both but Wes “decided to take his case to trial. He insisted that he was not there the day of the murder” (Moore 155) and he was guilty. He was sentenced life in prison and “finally he could see his future” (Moore 157). On the other hand the author Wes Moore became very successful. He was accepted and received scholarship money to John Hopkins. He was able to go on his “first long-term trip abroad” (Moore 163) to South Africa. He was able to go around and notice the similarities between the people there and the people that he had grew up with. He is able to see challenges that people everyday face and sees hope for everyone to redeem themselves. For himself he can relate to that on a personal level because he’s “had the freedom to make those mistakes, and the freedom to seek redemption for them” (Moore 179). He has become a great man because of everything he was able to overcome. He knew he needed to be better and he knew determination would get him places. He had a mind set for hope and he could of had the other Wes Moore’s life but instead he was able to pursue all his struggles and “see the boundless possibilities of the wider world and the unexplored possibilities within [himself]” (Moore 179). People in life overcome lots of adversities and it’s great for those who can but for those who can’t it may be easier to see them as people who struggle to find how they want to be in the world. Some people are determined but some people don’t bother to change the person they shouldn’t

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.

Tony, Wes’s older brother, tried to tell him to stay away from drugs but he didn’t listen. The narrator, on the other hand, grew up with a mother who made it a point to learn right from wrong. When the narrator was little his mother said, ”I told you, don’t you ever put your hands on a woman(Moore 5)!” His mother made sure that he knew that it was not okay to treat people like that which showed that he would learn right. These differences may seem very small, but they are a major cause for why they both turned out so

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).

In the novel, The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore, Tony’s behavior has a substantial influence on the Other Wes Moore. The Other Wes Moore is one of the protagonists in the novel and Tony is his half-brother. They live in Baltimore, Maryland, which was a major city filled with drugs and violence during the 1980s. Tony has dealt with drugs and violence and this has influenced the Other Wes Moore because Wes eventually became part of the drug world in Baltimore. In the text, Wes wanted a headset from a boy, the boy allows him to have it if Wes helps him look out for the police while he is selling drugs. He “knew what game this was, the same game that had consumed Tony and put a bullet or two in him. The same game Tony continually urged Wes to stay

The author Wes faced a situation when there was a group of drunken people in the car, trying to run him and his friend, Dalio, over. The author Wes stood in silent , "I thought about my mother and how she would feel if this escalated any further. I thought about my father and the name he choose for me" (121). Joy work hard for him to enter Valley Forge Military School and he can't abandon her hard work. And so, the author Wes continues to stay in Military school and graduated. Unlike the other Wes, he is behind bar for life. " they headed straighted to the display movements showed they knew exactly where to go and where they were looking for" (147). The other Wes knew that he had two choices; he was going to get caught or escape from robbery. " Maybe it was because he'd never thought long term about his life at all" (157). He never thought twice about what will happen afterward. Judges rule him to be sentence to life in jail for felony murder of Brunce Prothero, Police officer of 5 children. The author Wes made good choices when the other Wes chooses the

I believe that this was a second chance for him because his mom could have easily involved the cops; however, she flushed them down the toilet and later confronted him about his actions. Another example in Part II for the “Author Wes” was when his friend Shea and he were put in handcuffs because they decided to tag the wall and write “KK”. However, the cop gave him a second chance and let him go. He could have easily gone to jail, and got himself into a lot of problems. Both Wes Moore’s did not have their father as a support system. Westley, the Author Wes’s father, died due to a disease called acute epiglottis. The Other Wes had never met his father. Therefore, both of them did not have a father figure in their life. I believe that if they both had their father in their life; they would have probably made better decisions. There is nothing like a father and son relationship, and I believe that they both were missing that father figure in their life that everyone needs for guidance and

Wes was taught to never accept disrespect and governed himself with aggression because of it. The next encounter would be shooting Ray, a male dating a young lady Wes was seeing on a regular bases. Ray beat up Wes causing him to retaliate leaving him wounded. This experience would lead him to juvenile court charged for attempted murder, luckily he did not kill or hit any major organs and was released six months later. Wes’s environment was drug infested leading him to follow the path of becoming a dealer as he had no education, training, and a criminal record decreasing his chances to get a job.