Compare And Contrast The Different Life In The Other Wes Moore

The Other As children it is our parent’s main priority to decide what the best choices are for us. However, as we start to grow older we have somewhat more of a say so in what we decide to do. Both Wes Moore’s in The Other Wes Moore had rough childhoods, but the way they were raised and the way they chose their actions led to two very diverse lifestyles. Within the environment they were both living in, it could have been very easy for the author Wes Moore to have fallen a victim of drug gangs; Like many young boys at the time did, and how he writes it “sucking in some of our best friends” (51). It also goes both ways, the other Wes Moore, with just more motivation and effort could have led a successful if not, decent lifestyle, away from the …show more content…
Joy the authors Wes Moore’s mom saw what was happening with her son, his grades had been dropping in school because he wasn’t showing up half of them time. On one occasion he even ran into trouble with law enforcement while tagging with a neighborhood friend named Shea. Shea himself had been involved with drugs and gangs, “kids like Shea were used because they were less conspicuous, and less likely to be stopped by police officers” (80). Joy noticed the change in her son and had in the past made threats to send him off to military school. Although the author Wes Moore wouldn’t believe it then, his mom would soon have had enough and actually send him off. During this time the other Wes Moore was up to no good. I don’t know how Mary must have felt when she found in the other Wes Moore’s possession “pills, marijuana, half an ounce of powdered cocaine, and crack cocaine” (73), but things didn’t happen to make a turning point any time soon; Wes liked the way he was living and got used to it. He became a father at a very young age and even though Alicia, his girlfriend at the time, wanted to settle down Wes couldn’t. The other Wes Moore felt that his “nonexistent relationship with his father probably contributed to his seeming indifference about becoming a father himself. He had no idea what his role would be, he wasn’t even sure he had a role” (101). What he meant by this is he was only used to seeing his mother there, he never had a father figure, so how would he know how to be a dad. Having a baby on the way didn’t happen to change the other Wes Moore’s perspective, he should have tried changing his ways in order to provide his baby with life he didn’t