Discussion Think about the second chances given to both Wes Moores. Why did the author become a Rhodes Scholar while the other Wes Moore has a life sentence in prison?
A person could have all the chances in the world to make their life better; however, those chances will always go to waste if they don’t do anything to change their behavior. The novel, The Other Wes Moore, is about two boys with the same name and same beginning, but very different outcomes. While both lived in poverty-ridden areas with many bad influences, their paths seem to separate when the author’s mother sends him to military school. At military school, he realizes that there’s so much more to life than the misconduct of the people in his hometown. He found role models …show more content…
Which of the two Wes Moores were more affected by his father’s absence? Why did it have a greater effect on that …show more content…
Two of the characters who were massively influenced by this are the other Wes and Rex Walls. In The Other Wes Moore, Wes is surrounded by many substance abusers, including his alcoholic father and drug-dealing brother. Although Wes also follows in his brother’s footsteps of selling drugs, he makes an attempt to escape these influences by going to Job Corps. Sadly, when he returns and sees that the drug dealers are still in the same spot waiting for him, it causes him to become discouraged by the lack of improvement in his home town. This is the point in the novel where Wes completely loses hope for a better life and murders a police officer, ending up in prison for life. Furthermore, in The Glass Castle, Rex Walls, Jeannette’s father, struggled with alcoholism. His drinking addiction often caused problems within his family and his ability to provide for his children was questionable at times throughout the novel. When Jeannette asked him to stop drinking for her 10th birthday, he tried to quit but quickly fell off the wagon. After one of Rex’s drunk temper-tantrums, Jeannette states, “But when Dad got up, he’d act as if all the wreckage didn’t exist, and no one discussed it with him. The rest of us had to get used to stepping over broken furniture and shattered glass” (Walls 112-113). From this
A person could have all the chances in the world to make their life better; however, those chances will always go to waste if they don’t do anything to change their behavior. The novel, The Other Wes Moore, is about two boys with the same name and same beginning, but very different outcomes. While both lived in poverty-ridden areas with many bad influences, their paths seem to separate when the author’s mother sends him to military school. At military school, he realizes that there’s so much more to life than the misconduct of the people in his hometown. He found role models …show more content…
Which of the two Wes Moores were more affected by his father’s absence? Why did it have a greater effect on that …show more content…
Two of the characters who were massively influenced by this are the other Wes and Rex Walls. In The Other Wes Moore, Wes is surrounded by many substance abusers, including his alcoholic father and drug-dealing brother. Although Wes also follows in his brother’s footsteps of selling drugs, he makes an attempt to escape these influences by going to Job Corps. Sadly, when he returns and sees that the drug dealers are still in the same spot waiting for him, it causes him to become discouraged by the lack of improvement in his home town. This is the point in the novel where Wes completely loses hope for a better life and murders a police officer, ending up in prison for life. Furthermore, in The Glass Castle, Rex Walls, Jeannette’s father, struggled with alcoholism. His drinking addiction often caused problems within his family and his ability to provide for his children was questionable at times throughout the novel. When Jeannette asked him to stop drinking for her 10th birthday, he tried to quit but quickly fell off the wagon. After one of Rex’s drunk temper-tantrums, Jeannette states, “But when Dad got up, he’d act as if all the wreckage didn’t exist, and no one discussed it with him. The rest of us had to get used to stepping over broken furniture and shattered glass” (Walls 112-113). From this