People, places, and physical items can have life-changing influences on people throughout their life, ultimately deciding their fate. In the novel The Other Wes Moore written by Wes Moore, the two main characters share the same name, but very different destinies because of the difficulties they have experienced through the course of their childhood. In The Other Wes Moore, the characters demonstrate that outside influences directly affect the actions they take throughout their life. Wes’s actions throughout the book influence how he saw the world and his future. From the very beginning of the novel, the reader is introduced to two characters, the author Wes Moore, and the other Wes Moore who share the same name but very different realities. …show more content…
Tony, Wes’s older brother had been involved in the drug game from a very early age. Tony, being around Wes when their mother was not around allowed Wes to experiment and begin to get into the game with Tony. After being involved in the drug trade for a while, Wes acquires nice shoes and other expensive items which worries Tony. Tony interrogates him and demands to know where he got the money all while Wes tells him it is from djing at local neighborhoods. Knowing that he is lying, “Tony grabbed Wes's shirt collar and pulled him in close. ‘How many times do I have to tell you to leave this stuff alone, man?’ His tone was low and serious….’” (70) Tony shares how dangerous it is to sell drugs at such a young age which does not phase Wes. Later on, when Mary locates Wes’s drugs under his bed, she is shocked and can not believe what she has found. Realizing how clueless she has been,“She sat paralyzed on the bed for fifteen minutes before springing up, suddenly decisive. She took the boxes into the bathroom, lifted their tops, and emptied their contents into the toilet….A few hours later, Wes walked into his room and saw the two shoe boxes. His heart plummeted” (73) Mary did not realize the consequences that throwing away these drugs could have had on Wes. This action was in an attempt to help Wes, but in turn, just got him more involved later on. Another major influence on the other Wes Moore was growing up in the Bronx. In the late 1900s, the Bronx was an extremely dangerous, poverty-stricken place with a very graduation rate. The effect this had on kids growing up was extremely damaging and it exposed them to many dangerous situations. Comprehending his reality, the other Wes describes the crime in the Bronx “...drug game was everywhere, with a gun handle protruding from the top of every tenth teenager's waistline.” (27) With
However, when emphasizing on the main theme of the devastation felt by the victims during the incarceration of the kids in the “kids for cash” scandal, the author juxtaposes repeatedly the victimized “good kids” with the “bad kids” that awaited them in the juvenile detention centers. Ecenbarger wrote that some girls were tough at the camp and were teenagers from the inner city convicted for violent crimes. However, others were also in the detention camp for stealing the credit cards of the fathers to purchase clothes and for bringing pocket knives unintentionally to school (Ecenbarger, 2012, p.9). Similarly, the author wrote that “there was no sinister gang that inspired Paige who is fifteen years old to throw a sandal to her mother when they had an argument…Paige did not understand why she was being interned at the detention camp with
Up and down the street were entrepreneurial immigrants in colorful clothes…” This quote from the story helps the reader because it helps better the description of how Wes Moore feels about and sees the Bronx,
On a smaller scale, the community and everyday events of the Bronx also have a profound influence on the direction that Ezekiel’s life takes. After attempting to buy the necessary equipment to DJ, Zeke wants to get on a payment plan but is turned away because “for the last six months, boys who look like
Now throughout the duration of reading Anderson’s story of the inner-city in Philadelphia, one can learn and think a lot through the journey. Reading this book made me feel like I was actually visiting the city or walking through each street that was being explained about. Each different aspect of life, such as, school, family, crime or even relationships made me contrast the different lifestyles they had compared to the lifestyle that I associate with. Even the explanation of the code’s regulation through the way of talking, dress style, behavior or simple etiquette of eye contact specified enough detail, that it was easy enough to easily picture or imagine. It was thought-provoking to read about how Anderson was able to uncover the confrontations
This book encourages people to be more open minded no matter how strange it may be. This novel describes a different reality that all readers will struggle to understand. Douglas creates such an opposite version of our reality in his books. His books are a parody of our day-to-day lives. There are so many changes that happen throughout this book that require the characters as well as the readers to rethink some things.
Drug abuse and crime are some of the problems associated with their neighborhood. She also struggles to keep her son in a private school owing to the high tuition fees. Robert Peace found it difficult to deal with his father’s imprisonment at a young
As children in Southie watched rival gang wars, drug deals and gun violence, they began to learn that sort of behavior was normal and acceptable. MacDonald’s older brother Kevin grew up in the shadow of Whitey Bulger’s henchmen, and as he grew up began to perform increasingly dangerous jobs for Bulger. On the contrary, MacDonald’s older brother Frank was a role model for the children in South Boston. A talented boxer, Frank stayed away from Whitey and his gang and instead focused on improving himself through his sport. Many children in Southie looked up to him.
The Dead Rabbits riot was the single greatest gang-related disturbance in United States history, the culmination of one of the biggest rivalries of the nineteenth century (“Dead Rabbits Riot”). This feud was filled with robbery, prejudice, murder, and corruption. Although these two gangs clashed over racial, social and political difference, they also were similar in their disturbing yet impressive ferocity. The Bowery Boys and the Dead Rabbits were large, influential, and successful gangs, but had contrasting backgrounds, practices, and political views. These differences helped spark one of the most infamous rivalries in United
In the 1920s, the “Untouchables” impacted the system of crime in Chicago by ridding the streets of notorious criminals such as Al Capone. To comprehend the legacy of The Untouchables, it is important to first understand the cause of the crimes they were tasked with stopping. Much
Valentine’s Day Massacre of 1929 was a tragic example of the violence that was rampant in Chicago during the Prohibition era. History Today illustrates the connection between violence and arguments between rival gangs which had began due to Prohibition by stating, “The assailants had presumably intended to kill Moran himself, but he arrived late at the scene. One of the dead men who looked and dressed rather like Moran may have been taken for him by the gunmen. They may have been a mixture of Capone's men and hitmen brought in from outside” (1), which allows us as readers to visualize the situation which may have led up to the murder of these gang members. The massacre resulted from the rivalry between Bugs Moran and Al Capone’s gangs, and it highlighted the violent and illegal activities that took place in Chicago during the Prohibition era.
The book TOWM shows author Wes Moores views on choices we make and how people and how only people affect their way of life. One of the ways the book TOWM shows this choice vs fate is when author Wes Moore goes to be a successful man that becomes part of the military and turns his life around while the other Wes Moore chose to join and stay in the drug game even though he was told not to by his older brother tony which disappointed him, saying, ““You know what dude……
This lends itself to the question: how did these young men get to be so bad? The answer to this question lies within an observation of the world the two young men grew up with. In every instance, Sheppard and Mayr were shown that crime was not only a plausible way of making a living, but the repercussions were either easily avoidable by moving to another city, breaking out of prison, or simply evading the incredibly weak law enforcement. As each of the children
Kids who grow up living in Harlem are fighting for their lives as they encounter drugs, alcohol, and crime. We can see this conflict evident in both the narrator and Sonny because the narrator breaks free of the stereotype by becoming a teacher while Sonny falls into it when he is arrested for
Fear can be soul striking in many different ways, most notoriously within chapter four of The Other Wes Moore. The Other Wes Moore contains different viewings on two children's lives, they have the same name but not the same face. They lead into different lives from different beginnings, showing how they differ from one another. Chapter four in the book accurately describes fear from different viewpoints, the views aren't directly stated but with some details you can understand where fear plays into the story. This is how the book The Other Wes Moore relates fear to the human condition.
Drey, played by Shareeka Epps, is a student of Dan Dunne’s history class and a player on the Girls’ basketball team. She is also dealing with a drug related problem of her own. Later in the movie, she was involved and influenced with selling drugs to people in the neighborhood by her friend Frank. This is a social conflict in today’s world that people can get young ones to the dirty work and they are the ones risking their own lives with crime while both the young person and the supplier are both making profit. It is the social influence and the possible risk factors that causes the social problems of drug selling in adolescence.