The Other Wes Moore Research Paper

Each and everyone of us has been shaped by our family, our education, our friends, and our surroundings. We like to think that we are, for the most part, our own people, but in fact life really changes people in ways many don't recognize. A novel by Wes Moore, “The Other Wes Moore” presents a narrative that shows the ways that our circumstances and inspirations determine our fates and how nature & nurture affect us. Within “The Other Wes Moore,” Author Wes and Prisoner Wes are immensely affected by nature vs. nurture in many ways: Author Wes was affected by his fathers death, transitioning to a new school, his declining relationship with his mother and then moving to military school. On the other hand, Prisoner Wes was affected by his father leaving, Tony's influence, getting into drug dealing, dropping out of high school, and getting a girl pregnant.

Think about how different Wes’s life would have been if he had his patient, smart, and caring father with him, he’d certainly not be off ‘tagging” alleyways with up-and-coming dealers. Father figures are there to guide their sons into becoming something that they want to be, whilst also instilling values and morals into them. This is not to say that Wes' mother couldn’t do this, it is only that Wes would connect and relate much more to a male role model. Another exceptional event in Author We’s life is moving into the Bronx and transitioning to Riverdale Private School. His experience within this school is not good as he tries to balance a duality of culture between his school and his neighborhood. We can see his conflicted feeling in chapter 3 as Wes writes, "I was becoming too “rich” for the kids from the neighborhood and too “poor” for the kids at school.” (Wes Moore Dpg. 47. Showing how he more or less wanted to do worse in order to convince his mother to get into a more familiar