The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
Written by: Wes Moore

Main Characters: * Wes Moore - Author

* Mary Moore - Mother of Wes Moore (Author)

* Nikki Moore – Older sister of Wes Moore (Author)

* Shani Moore – Little sister of Wes Moore (Author)

* Wes Moore – The other Wes Moore

* Mary Moore – Mother of the other Wes Moore

* Tony Moore – Older brother of the other Wes Moore

Plot:
The Other Wes Moore is about two African American boys who not only share the same name, but almost the same life, in this eight chapter book you see a glimpse of eight different important years of both of these two boys development. The book first starts in the year 1982 in where Wes, the author loses his father to acute epiglottises and the other Wes meets his for the first time, Wes the author then goes on to move to New York with his mom to his grandparents house and the other Wes gets arrested for the first time. Wes, the author and is then sent to private school, where he hates it and the other Wes gets involved with dealing drugs. Wes then gets arrested for tagging a building and the other Wes’ mom finds out he is dealing drugs at 14. Wes gets sent to military due to him failing school and the
other Wes gets his girlfriend pregnant with their first child and gets arrested for shooting a boy, after Wes is sent to military school he changes drastically, for the better, while the other Wes stopped going to school all together and then sells drugs to a
cop and gets arrested again. After Wes graduates from military school he joins the army and the other Wes quits the drug business and goes into the job corps to get his GED. Wes then goes off to be accepted into John Hopkins University and spends a semester in Africa, starting his successful life, while the other Wes gets arrested for the final time for robbing a bank, is found guilty and is sentences to life in jail without parole.

Theme:
I think the biggest theme of The Other Wes Moore, is that you can do anything you put your mind to. After Wes’ mother put him in military school, he started working extremely hard, and trying to make something of his life, and he did. He is an inspiration to many, many people.

My Reaction:
I think this was a very well written book, and that a lot of hard work was put into it and it shows. I also think it was neat that Wes Moore decided to write this book, and that he even had the guts to write someone who was in jail for robbing a jewelry store and being an accomplice to murder, I wouldn’t be able to, even if she did have the same name as me. I think it’s very sad how people expect kids in the neighborhood that they grew up in not to succeed, it’s that attitude that I think makes kids not succeed and to drop out of school. It wowed me how similar their lives were, honestly, and how differently they turned out to be. But when I was handed this book, I that that for sure that it would be boring, but for the most part it wasn’t, I did think that the author’s stories started to get boring after he entered military school, and the other Wes’ stories were always a little bit more interesting. But you just can’t help but feel bad for both of these boys, especially the other Wes Moore, because his mother was pretty absent in his life, and his father was choosing not to be there, when you look at this boy, and it’s no wonder that this boy didn’t have a chance in life. But I think this is a book I would recommend someone reading, especially if that particular person was headed down the same, devastating road as Wes. It was a quick read and was pretty short, but I think it’s a book that stays with you, even years down the road of reading it, because it’s a captivating, empowering book, that potentially is life changing.

Compare and Contrast paper

“The chilling truth is that his life could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” Its chilling how similar their lives were. They both grew up in poor, single parent households, they both moved a few times and they both lived in bad neighborhoods, both of them didn’t have fathers and both of their mothers had to work more than one job to support their family, and while there are less differences, the differences are what I think lead them down the paths that they did. While the other Wes Moore’s father chose not to be there in Wes’ life, the authors didn’t have a choice since he died unexpectedly. Their mothers are what I think made the biggest difference in the outcome of the boy’s lives. Mary partied a lot, and brought different men home all the time, she didn’t try to stop Tony from dealing drugs when Wes started to deal drugs I feel that she let it slide. She was very absent in the kids’ lives due to her partying and her working long hours, while Joy was devoted to her children, even after Wes’ father died she still didn’t bring men home, or date for that matter, and when she saw that Wes was struggling she tried to do something about it, first she sent him to private school and when that didn’t work, she made the drastic but life changing decision to send her only son to military school, despite the cost. I feel that their mothers played the biggest role in their lives, and if Joy had been more like Mary then Wes, the author wouldn’t have turned out that way he did, he would have probably turned out like Wes, going to jail, dropping out of school, getting a girl pregnant and dealing drugs. Wes’ decision to stick with military school, in the end was the right choice and took him further then I think he had ever imagined himself to go. Even though these two boys had such similar childhoods, their adulthood was nothing alike.