The Other Wes Moore

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

Project by: Varshini Mohankumar

Chapter Seven: Other Wes

Chapter Three: Other Wes

Chapter Five: Other Wes

Chapter One: Author Wes

Turning Point

Wes and his friend Levy decide to join Job Corps which help Wes finally receive a diploma. "Wed, by contrast, finished near the top of his class. He completed the course work and received his GED a month later." (142) Wes had not received a diploma but got the next best thing, better than nothing. After being very successful in this program, Wes got several jobs which got him some money in his pocket.

Wes and Woody decided to skip class one day and hang out with some bad kids. “Within minutes, Wes and Woody had hooked up with some older kids who were also skipping class that day. … The boys sat under the bridge drinking malt liquor and smoking…” (59-60) That day, Wes became affiliated with a group of guys who were dealing drugs, becuase he wanted one of their headsets. After Wes told Woody that story, Woody and Wes instantly decided to skip class that day. These decisions they made influenced what he would be like soon in the future. In the next chapter, Wes full-on became part of a drug dealing croud, all because of this small innocent choice.

Wes gets his girlfriend, Alicia pregnant in this chapter, and can't process the fact that he will become a father soon enough. " Wes was dazed. He kept the news to himself for an entire month. ... He thought maybe it was a mistake." (99) This was going to be Wes' first child and this is going to change his life drastically in the future of his life. As anyone would assume, Wes becoming a father affected him going to school and his financial problems. He now had to support a family. This decision had affected Wes for years.

In chapter one, the author Wes decided to punch his sister after they played a game in their house.

“So in the spirit of three-year old boys everywhere who’ve run out of better ideas, I decided to punch her. … ‘Wes, he needs to learn what is acceptable and what is not!’” (5-6)

Wes is only three years old in this chapter of the book, and since he doesn't know how to act, his mother gets angry at him for doing such a thing. His mother wants to teach him that hitting a woman wasn't acceptable where they lived. She felt educating Wes about these things would mold him into a better person than what was stereotypical in the area.

Part I: Other Wes- Wes gets involved with drugs for the first time, and this initiates what will cause him trouble for almost the rest of his life. It influences him to make other bad choices.

Author Wes- Wes continued to do graffiti after the first time when he and his friend got caught. This causes him to continue to get bad grades, continuing with his bad choices.

Part II: Other Wes: Wes has his first child during part II and that is a major turning point for him. He has to take care of his girlfriend, Alicia, and his child, and he doesn't even have a stable job. This forces him to deal drugs full time.

Author Wes: Wes is goingmilitary school because of his plummeting grades at his other schools. This will change Wes' view for school during the future.

Chapter Three: Author Wes

Chapter Five: Author Wes

Chapter Seven: Author Wes

Chapter One: Other Wes

The author Wes made a choice to let his grades drop which caused him other bad things later. “I had forgotten how to act naturally, thinking way to much in each situation and getting tangled in the contradictions between my two worlds. My confidence took a hit. … I began to let my grades slip.” (53-54) As a result of Wes’ bad grades, his mother threatens to send him to military school, and thats where he ends up going. Wes let go of his grades and also stopped coming to class many times. This choice of his led him to being sent to military school, which he did not appreciate.

Author Wes is seen in his first days at military school and he explains how horrible he feels there and why he already knew he was going there. "This was my first day at military school. I knew my mother was considering sending me away, but i never thought she'd actually do it. ... They were placing me on academic and disciplinary probation." (87) Wes made a choice to drop his school studies and had ended up in this situation. He regrets making those choices and hates being at military school. After not liking military school, Wes goes through this and several other schools and later realizes that he should finally get a diploma to get anywhere in life.

Wes’ mother decided to drop out of college and sacrifice her education for her children.

“...her grant was being terminated. The $6.50 an hour she was making at Bayview was enough to keep the balance of her tuition paid, lights on, and the kids fed… she called Johns Hopkins… she was dropping out. That part time job at Bayview would become permanent.” (17-18)

Since Johns Hopkins was taking away her grant, she would definitely not be able to afford going to college, let alone raising her family. She had already had a job to pay for college, part time but now as she dropped out of school, she had time to make that a full time job. This situation shows Wes that education isn’t really that important as Mary dropped out too.

As Wes did not have a good history with schools in the past, he decided to attend a final college and soon join the army for his future. "My next decision was clear. I wanted to stay at Valley forge and attend its junior college, which would allow me to go through the early commissioning process, recieve my associate's degree and become a second lieutenant in the army." (133) This was the best decision made by author Wes as it succesfully paved his way towards his future. He found his passion of being in the army but by also attending school, happily.

Chapter 6

Chapter 8

Chapter 4

Chapter 2

Chapter 5

Chapter 3

Chapter 7

Chapter 1

Chapter Six: Other Wes

Chapter Four: Other Wes

Chapter Two: Other Wes

Chapter Eight: Other Wes

Wes and Tony get caught in a robbery and murder and Wes is accused of the murder. "Now, Wes' mind wandered to the long term for the first time. Finally, he could see his future." (157) After the murder, Wes and Tony go to court and Wes has to wait for a year to find out his verdict. He is found guilty and is sentenced to life in jail. Wes always got out of all the mistakes he made and kept making more after, but this murder mistake couldn't be fixed. Wes spent the rest of is life in jail, with regret.

Wes and his friends were playing football with the neighborhood kids and gets in a fight with another boy.

“Wes was on the other side of the front door, knife in hand, hurrying to settle the score with the boy who had busted his lip” (34)

During this fight, Wes and the other boy got aggressive when the kid kept pushing Wes over. As a result of the fight, Wes gets punched in the face and Wes gets angry. Later, he grabs a kitchen knife to get back the kid who punched his face. Within sometime, the police show up to the fight, and catch Wes with the knife and they get sent to jail. This is one of the first times Wes goes to jail and this choice seems to be one of the causes of his constant mistakes in life when he takes things too far, being influenced by his older brother, Tony.

Wes lies about how he made so much money and how he got to afford such nice shoes. “Wes stuttered out a story: he’d become a popular DJ in the neighborhood and was making incredible loot DJing parties.” (69) After Wes agreed to basically become a real drug dealer, he had to hide drugs in the house had unbelievable amounts of money. His family did not know of this whatsoever, so he creates a story to cover up for it. Wes gets tangled up in this horrible drug dealing job that will mold Wes into a horrible and traumatic life.

Wes can't find a decent job anywhere because of his lack of a degree or even a diploma. "Not surprisingly, without a high school or job training -and a criminal record- Wes found it almost impossible to find a job to support his growing family" (110) Wes was at a point in his life where he needed to support his new family, but couldn't get a job because nobody hired him. Wes completely dropped out of school after the birth of his first child. Wes found it very difficult to handle all of this, so he decided that his only option to make money at this point was to deal drugs, full time.

Chapter Four: Author Wes

Chapter Two: Author Wes

Chapter Six: Author Wes

Chapter Eight: Author Wes

Wes had study abroad in South Africa and that trip has changed wes and helped him realize many things. "This tall south african who now captured my attention wore his manhood as a sign of accomplishment, a badge of honor. ... His community welcomed him." (171) Wes realized that in South Africa, manhood was celebrated and commended. A man should be proud of his identity. But back at home, that wasn't the case. This choice to go to South Africa changed Wes for the better, he has realized what it is to be a true and good person.

Wes gets harassed by several teenagers and makes a decision to stay calm. " 'I just got hit,' I yelled to Dalio, spitting out blood and pieces of tooth into my hand. ...We moved into a completely dark area behind a collection of bushes to regroup." (121) After Wes got harassed by a group of drunk boys and also attacked multiple times, Wes and Dalio hid behind the bushes to protect themselves. Wes was very angry and embarassed, but made the right choice of staying safe after this incident, behind a bush.

Wes and his friend Justin got caught by the police doing graffiti on the wall, but Wes decided to break the rules again and do the same thing.

“... kid kupid was on the loose again, adding my tag to another graffiti-filled Bronx wall”(84)

The first time, he and his friend quickly did it and tried to run away when the police came up to them. He promises himself he would never do something like this again, but a week later, he goes back to a different wall, and doing graffiti. He fails to keep his promise and this decision was a result of his poor disiplinary habits.

Joy and her family moved to Bronx with her parents, because she needed support after her husband died. One day, Wes went around his neighborhood to see what it was like.

“I quickly started to pick up on their lingo and style, the swagger of my new teammates and neighborhood friends … a meeting place of every element of a neighborhood’s cohort of young man.” (44)

After a long day of work, Wes is allowed to go outside and look around for a little bit. He finds these group of boys on the basketball court. He watched them and throughout his limited time already there, he realized that the Bronx lifestyle was rubbing off on him. He felt as if he found his new gang. Wes’ choice of being friends with these kids shape who becomes later in the story.