The other wes moore free essay sample

Everyone lives their life differently. It’s obvious, yet so obscure. People look at others and wonder why they function the way that they do. The truth is, we will never know. Everyone’s story is different. Everyone has a different upbringing, and different values. In The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore, this concept is brought to light, showing how different two lives can become when they go separate ways; one towards education and its rewards, the other towards money and its corrupted power. One of the stories written in this book belongs to the author Wes Moore himself. While he had a rough start to life, with his dad dying unexpectedly when he was only three years old, he came out with a very successful life for himself. In his family, education was a vital part of life, and his mom would give them the best possible education that she could. We will write a custom essay sample on The other wes moore or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Moore states: â€Å"My mother decided soon after our move to the Bronx that I was not going to public school. She wasn’t a snob, she was scared†¦ But no matter how much the world around us seemed ready to crumble, my mother was determined to see us through it. When we moved to New York, she worked multiple jobs†¦whatever she could do to help cover her growing expenses† (47). Moore’s mother, a college graduate herself, would not let her children fail to receive a proper education. She sent them to Riverdale, an expensive, private school, so that they wouldn’t fall victim to the public school system of the Bronx. Failure was never an option in Wes’s household, and even though he had tried to rebel against this fact many times as a young child, this is ultimately what helped him to succeed in the rest of his life. There had been multiple times in his life that Wes could have fallen victim to the streets, and become just another juvenile criminal like so many around him, but he didn’t, because of the constant fight that his mother put up to make sure that he succeeded and attained a good education. When Joy, Wes’s mom, noticed that Wes was not doing well in the private school, she sent him away to a military school, in hopes of helping her son get his life together. At first, Wes tried to run away, trying to rebel and go down his own path in life, but had eventually chosen to turn his life around and this decision was one of the most important ones made in his life, because it was the starting point of his success. Wes completed high school at the military academy, and eventually went on to John’s Hopkins, where he was the first Rhodes scholar in 13 years, along with being the first African American student ever to receive it, and then onto Oxford, where he completed his Master’s in International Relations. The less fortunate of the two stories belongs to a man, whose name is also Wes Moore, who went down a life path quite the opposite of the former. While this Wes also didn’t have a father in his life, it was because his father chose not to be, not because of untimely death like the other Mr. Moore. Instead of education being a vital aspect of their lives, this Wes and his family lived with money being the name of their game. Wes found himself wading into the drug game by the time he was eight years old, and had dropped out of high school completely by his sophomore year. While there was one point when Wes had wanted- and tried- to straighten his life up, but it didn’t last. He went to Job Corps, and excelled quickly and extremely well while there, but fell back into his same habits and lifestyle upon his return home. â€Å"A year after graduating [Job Corps], he realized they (his problems, both monetary and drug related) had not disappeared ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã¢â‚¬â€ they’d simply returned to Baltimore, waiting for him to come back. In his absence, they’d compounded† (Moore 145). While Wes knew that the life he was leading was not one that he really wanted, he continued to find himself going down the same road. Even though Wes’s mother, Mary, never seemed to be around because she was always working, her son chased money the same, but not in a good way. While Wes was told that he needed to stay in school and stay away from the drug game, he didn’t listen, and eventually found himself caught up in the life of crime, and incarcerated for the rest of his life. Instead of doing the right thing and going down the path in life that would lead him towards success and living inside the law, he chose to act rebellious and live outside the law, and ironically, is forced to live the law for the rest of his life in Jessup Correctional Institution. Two men. Neither of whom had a father to look up to, and a mother who was working all the time. One of these men chose to lead his life down a path that he could be proud of. One that he never thought would be possible for himself. The other fell victim to the god that so many people chase after: money. Both of these men could have survived and conquered the world, yet unfortunately only one did. One small decision, such as putting on a headset, can change our lives for better or for worse. The Other Wes Moore free essay sample How do two boys with the same name who live within the same community end up with lives on two completely different paths? The author, Wes Moore, begins life in a tough Baltimore neighborhood and ends up a Rhodes Scholar, Wall Streeter, White House Fellow, etc. The other Wes Moore starts in the same place in Baltimore but ends up in prison FOR LIFE. The parallels in their stories arent quite as compelling as they may appear initially. For example, the other Wes Moore spends a number of his developmental years living in the Bronx, NY, whereas his namesake never leaves Baltimore and its suburbs. Though Wes Moore is shipped off to military school (after his antisocial behavior in a privileged private school), his educational path is decidedly better than his namesakes because of his mothers ambition. Wes Moore hit a quick reality check when he was sent to military school. We will write a custom essay sample on The Other Wes Moore or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He stated, I knew my mother was considering sending me away, but I never thought shed actually do it (87). Wes Moore, in a sense, thought he was too good for military school. But, he soon learned he needed to adapt to his new environment because he was going to be there for a while. During the time Wes Moore was in military school, he stated, Thats when I started to understand that I was in a different environment. Not simply because I was in the middle of Pennsylvania instead of the Bronx or Baltimore. It was a different psychological environment, where my normal expectations were inverted, where leadership was honored and class clowns were ostracized. (Moore 96) The other Wes Moore doesnt have this much support or as much push from home, although his mother was encouraging of his positive development. Further, the other Wes Moore has an older brother who in trying to dissuade him from pursuing his own example of a life in the streets ends up encouraging him to do just that. Moore quoted, He –Wes- loved his brother but had learned to ignore his occasional do as I say, not as I do tirades. Tony, by contrast, was desperately trying to give his little brother information he thought he needed, the kind of information that Tony never got. Tony felt his little brothers life could be saved, even if he  felt his own had already, at age fourteen, passed the point of no return. (Moore 27). On the other hand, Wes Moore has no such close relation or relationship dragging him down. 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 dont change, then second chances dont mean much, huh? (66). In the same conversation, about ? of the way into the book Moore realized an important aspect in life, I sat back, allowing Wess words to sink in. Then I responded, I guess its hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances. (Moore 67). There comes about a discussion on when Wes Moore and the other Wes Moore think they became men. Wes Moore thinks he became a man when he, First felt accountable to people other than myself. When I first cared that my action mattered to people other than just me(64). The same Wes later explains that he had, No official ceremony that brought my childhood to an end. Instead, crisis or other circumstances presented me with adult-sized responsibilities and obligations that I had to meet one way or another. For some boys, this happens laterin their late teens or even twentiesallowing them to grow organically into adulthood. But some of us, the promotion to adulthood, or at least its challenges, is so jarring, so sudden, that we enter into it unprepared and might be undone by it(64). Still, all of this would be minor were it not for the reality that Wes Moore is far more adept at relaying his namesakes historical story than at forcing the latters world in the present, especially the part that begins after he is convicted of perpetrating a life-changing crime. The other Wes Moore never quite comes to life as vividly as does Wes Moore, so he is not a particularly fascinating figure with whom to compare and contrast.