Have you ever met up with a longtime friend or aquatience and asked how things are going? Weather they came from different backgrounds or they are totally different from you; somehow you expect a totally different answer than your own, wouldn’t you? What if you met a friend who grew up with such similarities that he/she could have been you're adoptive brother or sister. What if you ended up being successful but your friend a criminal? If that person grew up in the same street with the similar struggle and temptation as your own; would you be surprise if they ended up a totally different outcome than you? What if they did? The question is how did they go down diverging paths? Was it coincidence? Reflecting on Wes Moore's New York Times Bestseller, The other Wes Moore one name, two fates, addresses this problem. Was it coincidence?
The other Wes Moore’s turning point was the attempted stabbing of the little kid who punched his lip; the specific turning point is when Wes Moore’s brother , Tony, told him to send a message. This specific message gave Wes Moore a sinister foundation that he lived by. When Ray, the boyfriend of his sex mate/ girlfriend, came to him and punched him around, Wes Moore grabbed his gun and chased him down becuase he wanted to send a message. Another point has to be the time he found his mother's stash of weed and when he became a look out for a drug dealer. This set up Wes to get into the "game"; He was finally like Tony. He did try to change and decided that being in the "game "was not worth it at one point. He went to job corps, thanks to recommendation of his friend Levy, to try to straighten up his life but realized that the reprocuttions of his criminal ways still burdened him financially; the earnings from his job corps skills were useless to support him and the child support he had to pay from his previous relationships.
Wes Moore's, the author's, turning point was his mother's love and perseverance. Joy's love sent an unwilling Wes Moore to military school. Wes was surrounded by discipline, though in the beginning this caused his runaways, He generally idolized the officers’ demeanor and wanted to obtain it. Since Wes Moore did terribly in private school and was skipping, his mother’s choice was inevitable. Joy had to sum up money from family and friends to be able to send Wes to Valley Forge. Wes Moore decided to stick it out at the military school; specifically it was his mother’s risk to burden her. Another point would have to be when he was handcuffed with his "friend" Shea and thrown in a cop car. Wes indicated that he "was also sincerely fearful about what was going to happen next. and that self righteous look on shea's face was starting to piss me off...something about this situation soured me on romantic rebellion...and I swore I would never get cuaght in a situation like that again."(pg.83-84).
I believe the other Wes Moore was an eye opener of a novel. I like that it shows how two people who grow up with so much similarities could result in different outcomes ,which in reality it’s sad but its show the reality of how life can result. I also love the messages the people other than the main characters gave; for example Colonel Murphy, the commandant of cadets who was leaving to undergo treatment for his advanced stage cancer, " When it is time for to leave this school, leave your job, or even leave this earth, you make sure you have worked hard to make sure it mattered you were ever here." (pg. 133).