The other Wes Moore

In the book, The Other Wes Moore, as difficult as it is to believe the two Moores share great similarities such as names and other aspects of life. The Other Wes Moore was written by Wes Moore in the year of 2010. It is the mind-baffling story of the two different kids that had been born to the exact same name . They were born only a few blocks apart, in the same decaying city. One grew up to become a scholarly army officer , while the other winded up serving life in prison . All of the events in this novel are based off of a true story .

This is a narrative informative nonfiction of two African American males that were nearly identical . The purpose of this novel is to expand one’s knowledge, and dissect the reasons as to how these two people lived the exact same life and still winded up going down two completely different paths . This story gives a better understanding as to why one is serving life in prison, while the other is out living the life that the other never got the chance to experience. “It is my sincere hope that this book does not come across as self-congratulatory or self-exculpatory. Most important, it is not meant in any way to provide excuses for the events of the fateful day February 7, 2000. Let me be clear. The only victims that day were Sergeant Bruce Prothero and his family. Rather, this book will use our two lives as a way of thinking about choices and accountability, not just for each of us as individuals but for all of us as a society. This book is meant to show how, for those of us who live in the most precarious places in this country, our destinies can be determined by a single stumble down the wrong path, or a tentative step down the right one” ( Moore 8 ) .Wes Moore , the author , was born October 15, 1978, in Baltimore , Maryland . He is a author, social entrepreneur , and a hard working - devoted army officer . He lived a troubled childhood, just like the other Wes Moore, yet he still managed to turn his life around . This book starts off by explaining how Wes Moore came up and how he ended up finding out about the other Wes Moore .The real Wes Moore had grew up experiencing a very troubled childhood , but he turned it all around for himself . In 2000, he had had an article written about him for winning one of the most prestigious academic awards in the world . A couple months earlier an article had been published by the same company about another situation, a situation that stuck with Moore for the long run. A couple months earlier, there had been a planned armed robbery of a Jewelry store that had gone completely wrong . The store’s security guard was shot and killed after he had pursued the men into the store parking lot. Two weeks later, all of the suspects had been apprehended and taken into custody . It was said that the shooter, Richard Moore , would more than likely serve life in prison for the murder. It was not this , however , that had caught his attention. It was the fact that the shooter’s younger brother had the exact same name as him .

The first section continues on to explain how the two men grew up. Wes Moore watched his father pass away from an allergic reaction, at the age of four years old . Due to financial issues that would follow shorty after , his mother moved him and his family to the Murphy Homes Projects . It was there , he watched his brother convert into a big-time drug dealer . He was eventually sent to go live with his grandparents in the Bronx, thinking that lifestyle would be better for him . He began to attend high school, which is where his troubles got worse. His behavior was erotic, and he had began to attend school irregularly . To keep him from getting too deep into trouble in the Bronx, his grandparents sent him to Valley Forge Military School . The first night he was there, he hated it and had tried to escape , but failed. With the help of his mentors, he eventually went on to graduate form the school .

The other Wes Moore’s childhood did not have as much of a happy ending . Despite his family moving into a safer neighborhood , his troubled ways did not leave him as easily . He was still captivated by the dangerous lifestyle that he had once lived . His school attendance was irregular , as well , but it only got worse from there . His girlfriend winded up being two months pregnant . He even lied to his mother about where all the money he was obtaining was coming from, but his mother knew better than to believe whatever he had told her . His father had never really been in his life . He never finished high school, and he landed his first prison sentence for shooting a man that had disrespected his girlfriend . Moore then got help and ended a small position in Job Corp. It was then that he decided he wanted to live his old lifestyle alone and earn a better life for him and his family . However, he eventually ran into some more financial problems, and resorted to moving drugs again to get a little extra money . Shortly after this relapse , he became involved in a armed robbery gone wrong , that would ultimately cost him the rest of his life .

The two Moore’s could not be any more similar nor different . On paper, it might be possible to get the two confused . But in person, the two could not be any more different from each other . Their destinies derived from success and failure . One was destined for greatness, while the other one simply was not . Not only portraying the two Wes Moores: the story is an illustration of their families. “ Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.” (Brad Henry) If not nothing more, Moore expressed the degree of family shaping who we are. Family support is everything and without it most have little chance of reaching the success they want to. It is very clear that the author was momentously influenced by his family to make him the person he is today. Him and both Wes had to cope with the fact that they did not have fathers in their lives. Moore’s father died when he was younger and till this day and throughout the writing of the novel Wes Moore uses his father has an inspiration. As far as the other Wes he follows in his father’s footsteps and repeats not being in his own sons life. It is known that Wes’s mother, Joy kept him from being just like the Other Wes. The author began to change his ways when he realized his mother started sacrificing for him. Before this the both Wes Moore’s were very similar. The Other Wes Moore’s family also supported him but at times had a weaker influence. He would get mixed messages. Families try so hard to control their children’s purposes and most of the time ends up backfiring.

The authors family had very high prospects for him. They wanted him to do the best he can so that he could become as successful as possible. As any regular teenager Wes began to get in trouble. So as a mother Joy takes action and enrolls him into a all “white school”. Her goal was to expand his limits and help him form a better life. The denial of Riverdale and weak academic result tends to put a strain on him and his mother’s relationship. “My mother saw Riverdale as a haven, a place where I could escape my neighborhood and open my horizons. But for me, it was where I got lost.” (Chapter 3) She defiantly underestimates the impact that the social hostility of attending there would have on her son. In result of all this Joy then takes the next steps to get him into military school to get his act right. In order to get him in there she has to begin working several jobs. She worked as hard as she could to keep him in there even when he begged to come home. This showed Wes that his mother only wanted what was best. That she expected not only for him to live better, do better, be better, but the assurance he could do better.

The other Wes Moore Struggled with a supporting family. His biggest influential person was his brother Tony, who was caught up in dealing drugs. Tony intentions was never to get Other Wes involved in the drug game at all, but of course because that’s what he seen that’s what he wanted to do. Major factor to this all was that their mother was never around due to the fact she was always working in order to take care of them. When Mary did find out it was not pretty at all. She reacted more than harshly, to the point where she began to flush thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs Wes planned on selling down the toilet. All he had was his mother and her belief that he could do better. So without the support there was nothing there. He became all he knew. Rather than following the voice of his brother and not the action both him and his brother end up in prison for the same exact crime. This goes to show that it is the examples set by family that has the biggest impact of anyone.

“"I think so, or maybe products of our expectations." "Others’ expectations of us or our expectations for ourselves?" "l mean others' expectations that you take on as your own." I realized then how difficult it is to separate the two. The expectations that others place on us help us from our expectations of ourselves. "We will do what others expect of us," Wes said. "If they expect us to graduate, we will graduate. If they expect us to get a job, we will get a job. lf they expect us to go to jail, then that’s where we will end up too. At some point you lose control."” (Part III interlude) As the story went on The Author realized all of this wasn’t just him and the Other Wes has some part of him. That in some shape or form they were linked.

When Moore had first found out about the other Wes , his life had just begun, while the other Wes’ life had just been taken away from him . The connection that Moore feels with the other Wes is rather deep. He had felt some sort of fraternal connection, and the other Wes had felt it as well . It is rather distinct and mysterious . Moore feels like , even though he did not know anything about the other Wes , he is still somehow directly involved in how he turned out . He feels like he is somehow to blame for how the two’s life ended up so differently . Rather than seeing the other Wes as just another criminal in the system, he felt some sort of compassion for him. He felt obligated to find out what went wrong, and what exactly led him to make the decisions that would ultimately cost the other Wes his life . He often refers to the other Wes as “brother”, mirroring a sense of a fraternal connection.

At this point in the story, Moore begins to write letters to the other Wes, hoping to learn more . Though he is hesitant at first, he still follows through , unsure of the type of response that he is going to get . The other Wes responds back, starting off the letter he wrote to Moore as “Greetings, Good Brother”. The two keep in contact, writing each other very frequently . Two years after discovering the other Wes, this eventually turns into face-to-face prison visits . Moore keeps up with these prison visits , determined to learn more about Wes and where he went wrong in life. What had Moore done differently that Wes had not ? They spend these visits discussing parallels between , as well as beyond the two’s lives . He feels as though these conversations with the other Wes can lead to a larger discussion of themselves, as well as the other men who were apart of their generation . Though he is constantly reminding himself of the crime Wes committed, and why he is rightfully behind bars, Moore feels as though he can still find some positive in all of the madness that the situation has caused . Moore spends hundreds of hours interviewing Wes, his friends, and his family, as well as his own, hoping to find some more insight as to why everything went down the way it did .

There are multiple characters that had a huge influence on the way the two characters had turned out. Tony is Wes’ older brother . He is the ‘trigger man’ of the shooting that landed them both in jail. He ends up dying behind bars due to kidney failure . Alma is Wes’ maternal grandmother . She dies shortly after Tony had been born due to a failed kidney transplant . Bernard is Wes’ father . He got his mother pregnant a few months after meeting her, and left before Wes was even born. Ray is the victim of Wes’ first shooting . He survives, but ultimately got Wes sent to a juvenile detention center . Nikki is Moore’s older half sister. She was a product of their mother’s first marriage . Joy is Moore’s mother . She leaves her first husband due to the drug abuse and the violence, which is how she ends up meeting Moore’s father . She has a troubled relationship with Moore, which seemed to get better after he graduated school . Westley is Moore’s father . He dies unexpectedly when he suffers from an acute epiglottitis , which can suffocate one to death if it is left untreated .

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