The Other Wes Moore Character Analysis

In the book The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, two people by the name of Wes Moore turned out to have different fates. One became a Rhodes Scholar while the other became a convicted murderer who's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. How did one become more traditionally successful than the other? One can say that it's because of how their mothers guided them and the environment they grew up around. Children don't know any better, they depend on the guidance of a father, mother or even both. Joy Moore, the mother of Wes Moore (the author) was there to guide him every step of the way and because of that, he became what he is now. ‘“Get up to your damn room” came my mother's command from the doorway “I told you, don't ever put
Wes Moore (the author) experienced only part of his life in a tough neighborhood unlike the other Wes Moore who never escaped. Wes had the opportunity to escape the horrendous environment which he called his hometown. The fact that he moved away from Baltimore gave him the opportunity to get away from all the chaos. The Bronx wasn't much different from Baltimore but it wasn't as bad. “Years earlier, I had run through these same woods with all of my might, looking for safety, trying to get away from campus. Tonight, I ran through the same woods looking for safety, but in the other direction” (Moore 122). Apart from spending most of his time in Baltimore and New York, the author Wes Moore spend a good amount of time in Fort Payne. As time passed by, Wes’s view of safety changed. He saw military school as a dangerous environment but remembered his home in Baltimore which seemed safer to him. Fort Payne was like a second home for him, a home where he wouldn't be able to get away with any sort of mischief. Wes went from a child who got arrested for vandalism to a teenager who has a great life ahead of him because of the fact that he went to military
“Cherry Hill became a breeding ground for poverty, drugs, and despair” (Moore 28). In Cherry Hill there aren't many opportunities for people, especially for young kids. It soon becomes clear why kids like Wes turn to the drug games. At the corner of the street all Wes could see is people selling drugs and doing drugs. The environment which surrounded him as a child was full of uneducated people and drug addicts. “He walked down the broken blocks pass clusters of abandoned buildings, the glass from shattered windows on the sidewalks, junkies on the steps. He walked for miles through a steady drizzle trying to clear his mind while thirteen year olds ran drugs up and down the street” (Moore 138). The description of the area that Wes lived in shows how bad it the area was when he was a child. At one point in his life Wes was one of those 13 year old boys who ran drugs up and down the street. In an environment like the one where Wes grew up it like an episode of survival of the fittest. All Wes did was survive the horrible conditions of the environment he grew up