Book Summary: The Other Wes Moore

Words: 1609
Pages: 7

“The Other Wes Moore”
In the book “The Other Wes Moore”, the author Wes Moore talks about himself and his life story and he also talks about another boy named Wes Moore. Wes Moore’s grew up with a familiar story to each other’s, they both grew up fatherless and had a difficult childhood, and they roomed around the neighborhood and got into trouble. As they grew up they took two very different paths. Wes Moore wrote this book to answer the question of why one turned out to be a Rhodes Scholar, Decorated Veteran, White house Fellow, and business leader while the other turned out to be a convicted murderer who is serving a life sentence in prison.
Wes Moore States “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that
…show more content…
Both Wes Moore’s make their own choices and they can look up to someone other than their fathers. Wes states “We make decisions based on what we see in that limited world and follow the only models available” (Moore 179). He is saying that they made decisions based on who they look up to. Wes looked up to his colonel, he made decisions based on what he learned in the military which is to never quit, and he became a better person while he was in the military. The other Wes Moore looked up to Tony and he made bad decisions. The other Wes on the other hand said “Boredom in teenage boys is a powerful motivation to create chaos.” (Moore 87). Wes was bored, which’d caused him to get involved at such an early age to get caught up in Drugs, gangs, violence. He lived in a little town in a small neighborhood, which his excuse to his outcome of his life. On the other hand I believe that losing their fathers sent both Wes Moore’s down the wrong path. They didn’t have an older dad figure to look up to at first and that how they both started on the wrong path. The other Wes Moore never met his father in his early life, he left before Wes was born. “But the relationship between Mary and Bernard didn’t even make it to their child’s birth” (Moore 23). They didn’t know how to cope with losing their father, whether by death or neglect. “He was my protector” (Moore 11). Wes Moore’s father was close to him before he died, that was Wes’s only memory of his father. “Daddy are you going to come with us?” (Moore 16). He said this as he was looking down at his father’s body in the casket, he couldn’t comprehend what had happened. The other Wes Moore told Wes “Your father wasn’t there because he couldn’t be, my father wasn’t there because he chose not to be, and