One Name, Two Fates

Survival of the fittest deems that only the strongest of a species survives in its environment. This creed is a way of life for the residents of the Baltimore streets. In Wes Moore’s book The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, the author presents the dangerous culture of the Baltimore streets and its ever-lasting spiral of violence and drugs from which the author is able to escape, and another boy with the same name, fails to escape. Both Moores face the struggles of achieving adulthood in a neighborhood where violence is a sign of power and involvement in the drug dealing business is seen as more valuable than an education. As the Moores struggle to survive the streets, their story reflects upon what many young men go through to achieve adulthood. Moore shows that violence, drug dealing, and disregard for education lures young men by enticing them with their idea of power, respect, money, and, …show more content…
The general consensus among the youth is that education is a waste of time and energy. This is evident by the fact that the Northern High School in Baltimore City had a 38 percent success rate (Moore 108). As pursing an education requires hard work and dedication in order to become successful in life, these kids who no longer attended school had already found a short curt to success provided by the street life. While these kids were able to get ahold of quick money that required minimal effort, the young mindset of these kids could not foresee that the street life only provided a means for short gain and great risks of losing their lives or spending it behind the bars in prison. As the author eventually learned at a later age, “the way many governors projected the numbers of beds they’d need for prison facilities was by examining the reading scores of third graders” (Moore 54). This lesson is sadly learned too late for the youths who pass over their education in favor for a life of the