Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-10:45
The Other Wes Moore One Name, Two Fates “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his” (Moore, 2010, front cover). The Other Wes Moore is about two guys with the same name but end up going down totally different paths in life, hence the quote. In this paper it will discuss the novel, The Other Wes Moore, describe their social location, and describe the sociological perspectives used in sociology and analyze excerpts from the book using each of the three sociological perspectives. Social location is the combination of social factors which locate someone in society (Henslin,2013, pg. 4). Social location includes: Sex/Gender, age, social class, race/ethnicity, culture, religion, & sexual orientation (Henslin, 2013, pg. 4). Both Wes Moores have a different classification when it comes to social location. When it comes to classifying their social location they are both males, they are around the same age, they are both middle class. Both boys have the same ethnicity, same culture, and from what we know they both have the same sexual orientation. Where social location comes into play the most is definitely in social class. When one thinks about social class it has a lot of impact in many different areas. When Wes and his family have to move he gets put into a private school which is expensive. It's not about the money with Wes's mom it's about him getting the proper education and about him shaping up so he doesn't get into any trouble. Sociological perspectives are a type of tool to help with analysis and discussions. Each sociological perspective views issues in its own way. The first perspective is conflict, which has a macro view on issues. Macro focuses on large scale patterns in society (Halperin, 2/13/15). Conflict has to do with an issue or matter that is causing a rather long discussion and can potentially cause a problem. When
References: Halperin, J. (n.d.). Sociological Perspectives. Handout obtained February 3, 2015 from class. Henslin, J. (2013) Essentials of Sociology: A down-to-earth approach, (10th edition). Boston, MA: Pearson Publishing. Moore, W. (2011). The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. New York, NY: Random House Publishing Group.