What Is The Theme Of The Other Wes Moore

The memoir that I decided to read was The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. This story takes place in Baltimore, Maryland in the late 1970’s and switches towards the year 2000 at the end of the novel. Wes Moore, the author, was inspired to write this novel when he found out that there was a man with the same name as him who grew up in Baltimore. He decided to look further and meet this other Wes Moore and he wrote him a letter. The two finally met and this is where the story begins. The first part of this book highlights the fact that both men grew up without a father figure in their lives. Although they were both fatherless both Wes Moore’s had a mother who was very strong and wanted to support her family. The other Wes Moore’s mother was trying

As the family moved Wes was not enjoying his school, and his brother Tony was getting into the wrong crowd of drug dealing. As Wes watched his brother he grew to become like him, and as we saw his issues rise Wes got his first arrest in middle school when he got in an argument with a classmate and brought a knife to confront him. Wes’s adolescents was not very successful in that as he grew older we started seeing a girl, Alicia. Alicia became pregnant while Wes was still hustling to make money. To hide this from his mother Wes told her he was making money DJ’ing. Wes never finished high school and ended up in Prison for shooting a man who was challenging his

After moving Wes attended a private school and did not enjoy it. He felt as if he did not belong because all of the children that went to school with him were better off than he was financially. As Wes started to irregularly attend this school his grandparents sent him away to military school in hopes of Wes becoming better off in his future. The first night there Wes could not stand it and tried to escape home, but with mentors watching over him he was not able to escape. At age 18, Wes became the regimental commander for the 70th Corps of Cadets, which made him the highest-ranking cadet in a corps of over 700 students. After graduating from military school Wes returned back to Baltimore because he was accepted into Johns Hopkins University’s undergraduate degree program. He was also offered an internship with Mayor Schmoke of Baltimore. Schmoke was curious if Wes wanted to become a Rhodes Scholar, but Wes wanted to go abroad so Schmoke encouraged him to travel to Africa to experience a whole new idea of life. Wes agreed and as he was in Africa he realized that the way he was living was nowhere near as bad as those who were living in Africa. While in Africa Wes became close with Zinzi, one of the children of the host family he was staying with, and Zinzi explained to Wes that as a part of the Xhosa Tribe he would embark on his journey of manhood before he left for America.