1) I believe that Moore, the author, is trying to say that the second chance is trying to rewrite the first mistake and the last chance could be your last chance. The author’s last chance to stop his drug dealing was when he was sent to military school. His temper against his mother, bad grades, absences from classes and an incident with a smoke bomb were the reasons his mother sent him to military school. (Moore 87) The “other” Wes had the decision to stop selling drugs while raising his family. He later joined the Job Corps, but later realized he could not make the money like he did in the drug business. On page 144, Wes was passing the streets remaining him of his past, “But the main reason he avoided the streets was that he felt they had nothing for him. He had changed. At least he wanted to believe that.” Wes later made the decision to take the risk to sell drugs for a living.
2) Both environments played a huge role into their personalities and their stories. For both Wes’s, the streets of the Bronx and Baltimore were filled with poverty, drugs, and violence. Chinquapins population of students was 99% black. (Moore 27) and it certainly did not help that the other Wes’s brother Tony started dealing drugs since he was 10. The personality he gained from Tony made him follow in his footsteps and join others selling drugs on the streets. Both the
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Violence can trigger emotions that cannot be undone which can lead to regret. Wes’s father wanted to teach Wes that violence is not tolerated especially a lady. For the other Wes, he never had a father to guide him to make the right decisions or reprimand when he was wrong. This is one of the key factors into why the other Wes got into trouble with violence and drugs. Even though the author did experience trouble with violence and drugs, he realized violence would lead to more violence. After his mother’s abuse from Bill, she vowed to never let another man put his hands on her. (Moore