“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.” – (Moore 103) Both Wes Moore’s grew up similar environments, got in trouble with the law at a young age, and were raised by a single parent. Although they had many similarities, they had very different upbringings. The author Wes Moore’s mother never gave up on bettering him, and it reflected on his future. Whereas the other Wes Moore had a rocky guidance that eventually landed him in prison. Due to their different ways of being raised and the expectations their mother’s had for them, the author Wes had a positive future and the other Wes had a negative future. That was a great representation that the environment they surrounded themselves in had a great impact, but those who surrounded them had a stronger impact.
Most boys growing up want to have that father figure to be the discipline, to go out to catch a ball with, and to relate to. The Wes’s were fatherless boys that felt that absence. Their father’s were absent under different circumstances and both affected in different ways. The other Wes knew his father wanted out and only saw him twice which caused him to spiral downwards. He was in trouble with the law at a young age and it was probably due to the fact that his father was absent. It affected him negatively, because it caused him to want to be out of his first child’s life. Also, having four children with different women was probably a reflection of his missing piece. The author Wes lost his father when he was just three years old. His last memory of his father was his father defending him when his mother was getting mad at him for slapping his sister. Later that came in to place when he married his wife, because he thought back at that moment and realized he should show respect to his wife. He had a good image of his father, but he lacked that father figure which caused him to rebel. He started failing grades in class and getting in trouble with the law. Their fathers were the root problems to their how their lives were lived at their early stages, but each had different people to guide them to where they ended up.
References
- Goodreads – The Other Wes Moore
- YouTube – Wes Moore TED Talk
- Time – Articles by Wes Moore
- CNN – Profile of Wes Moore
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