The Other Wes Moore: Analysis

“Until we solve poverty, we’ll never solve high school graduation rates.” (Harrington) Students are forced to drop out of high school and college to help support their families. Because they live in poverty they do not have the time or money to attend school. Poverty and education is a theme we see in the book The Other Wes Moore. We do not only see this through both of the Wes’ lives but also through their mothers, and even through their grandparents. Poverty played a role in both the Wes’ lives. Both of them lived and grew up in places that were affected by poverty and this played a crucial role on their lives. Author Wes Moore’s mother Joy, was a college graduate. She had come to the United States from Jamaica because her father wanted …show more content…
She had enrolled at a community college in Baltimore. She was the first in her family to attend college and had completed her associated degree but during her pursuit for her bachelor’s she had to drop out because her Pell Grant was being terminated and she could not afford school without it. “The $6.50 an hour she was making at Bayview was enough to keep the balance of her tuition paid, the lights on, and the kids fed, as long as her Pell Grant was in place. But with that grant now eliminated, it wouldn’t be enough.” (17) She didn’t have enough money to pay for her school and enough money to take care of her family so she had to dropout. Mary dropping out also influenced Wes, she didn’t push him later on when he was in school because she herself never got the full education she wanted. Maybe she thought there was no point, since she didn’t have the money for college, Wes wouldn’t either. Poverty set it limitations on prisoner Wes’s mother. Also, because she did not have a college education it was hard for her to find a higher paying job, this leading to her working multiple jobs just to survive, and her not being around to keep an eye on Wes to see if he was attending …show more content…
He was the one poverty set limitations on. College was never in the picture for him, his mother dropped out to support him and his brother and she never pushed Wes to pursue it himself. His mother didn’t have the money to attend college, thus putting a restriction on Wes’ own finical struggle to afford College. Wes also had to support his family later on in life. As a result, he fell in the drug game which then led to theft and violence. While the author Wes Moore escaped the grasps of Poverty. His mother had family and resources to help push Wes into a better future. Even though both the Wes’ grew up in poverty stricken city’s, their futures came down to personal choices, education, resources, and their