Theme: Parallel Life Stories
"'The hands of the law would stay on him for the rest of his life... he'd never figured this. Maybe it was because he'd never thought long term about his life at all. Early losses condition you to believe that short-term plans are always smarter. Now Wes's mind wandered to the long term for the first time. Finally, he could see his future." (page 157)
In the chapter "Surrounded," both Wes Moores experience a life-changing experience. For the first Wes, it is the moment he is convicted to life in prison after being accused of killing a policeman. Not only does this take away all hope for him to have a successful future-- he will be spending the rest of his life in jail with no hope of parole-- it also forces him to change his outlook on the world, similarly to how the second Wes changes his outlook after his experience later in the chapter. Before this point, Wes never considered the long-term impact of the choices that he was making. He grew up in a rough neighborhood where getting the money to eat dinner in a few hours was more important that thinking about plans a month or even a week in advance. Learning that he is going to prison changes all this for Wes-- now he doesn't have to worry about what he's going to do day-to-day to survive, because his meals and protection will most likely be provided for him in jail. Instead, he is forced to consider how he is going to spend the rest of his life-- as Moore writes in the chapter, "he could see his future." This line emphasizes the fact that for the first time in what is perhaps a very long time, Wes has begun to think critically about his life and what he is going to do with it. Because of an incredibly negative experience, his entire outlook on life has changed from one that focuses solely on the short term to one that considers long-term effects.
"We went to school together at the University of Cape Town and studied culture and reconciliation-- a subject for which post-apartheid South Africa had become a living laboratory. Aside from the formal curriculum at the university, we would spend our lime learning the language, learning the country, and learning more about ourselves than we ever imagined." (page 164)
Just like the other Wes Moore, the author Wes has a life-changing experience in the chapter "Surrounded" through his trip to South Africa. The opportunity for him to take the trip means more than just another vacation-- he says that it was a place for him to "[learn] more about ourselves than he ever imagined." While the other Wes Moore's life outlook is changed dramatically because of being sentenced to life in prison, the author Wes also changes his outlook on the world because of the experiences he is able to have in South Africa as a result of his Rhodes Scholar grant. Later in the chapter he describes the things he has learning about race and the luck and privilege he has had even during his childhood in Baltimore after he sees the considerable more run-down shantytowns that impoverished South Africans are forced to live in. He talks about how being in South Africa makes him feel as if he is a small part of a much, much bigger world, where no one would even care if he disappeared. Before his trip to South Africa, Wes isn't quite sure what he wants to do with his life or what his place in the world even is-- his travels and experiences there are ultimately what make him decide what he wants to do and what give him the motivation to ask critical questions about the society he is a part of. In this way, just like the other Wes's experiences changes his life by making him think about what his role is and his future, the author Wes also begins to think about his future and what he really wants to do as a result of his trip.
"His lawyer argued that when Wes was questioned by Baltimore police the day after the crime, before he was announced as a suspect, he was calm, a clear sign of his innocence. His lawyer claimed the police were harassing people in the neighborhood, trying to drum up shaky evidence and confessions." (page 156)
Wes's experiences in the chapter "Surrounded" bear a striking resemblance to those experienced by the other Wes Moore. Wes is portrayed as having been accused wrongly of a crime-- in the passage before the chapter, he tells the author Wes that he was never even there on the day that his brother Tony murdered a policeman. Although the author does not take a strong stance on this position, instead choosing to report the facts more objectively, it seems very plausible that Wes was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. His racial background, his family relationship with Tony, and the neighborhood he lived in all labeled him as a potential perpetrator of the crime before he even stepped into the courtroom. In fact, the event that changes Wes's entire life is less a result of his own personal choices and more a result of his own bad luck-- arguably, he did nothing wrong in the entire crime, but he was the unlucky man who fit the description. For Wes, the bad luck didn't start the day he was convicted of killing the policeman. It started long before that, when he was born into the "wrong" neighborhood and the "wrong" race, labeled guilty before he even learned to talk by a system of institutional racism. Unlike the author of The Other Wes Moore, Wes's luck never changed-- he would wear that label forever. Here it can be seen that what on the surface looks like a random unlucky occurrence-- Wes being wrongfully accused of a crime-- has actually resulted from a long history of his own actions, his situation, and the racist system of law enforcement and criminal justice that purported existed to protect his own life. In the lives of both the other Wes, who is given a Rhodes Scholarship in part because his college adviser is friends with the director and arranges for them to meet, and Wes who is criminally convicted, the course of their lives seems to be decided by just a single event, but in reality the story is much more complex. While for the author Wes his "luck" started when he was enrolled in military academy and became tangible when he got the Rhodes Scholarship, the other Wes's "bad luck" started from the time he was a young boy on the streets and was painfully obvious in the ruling of "guilty" that sentenced him to life in prison.
"Having an advocate on the inside-- someone who had gotten to know me and understood my story on a personal level-- had obviously helped. It made me think deeply about the way privilege and preference work in the work, and how many kids who didn't have "luck" like mine in this instance would find themselves forever outside the ring of power and prestige." (page 160)
Here, Wes's thoughts mirror the experiences of the other Wes Moore as he is convicted for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The author Wes fully recognizes that he has had the opposite experience-- he was in the right place at the right time, and his mother's connections and choice to put him in military school were ultimately what allowed him to find success instead of having a future that mirrored that of the incarcerated Wes Moore. It is clear that Wes understands that this isn't because he worked harder or because he was ultimately a better person. Instead, it was because of "luck," which he explains in the form of privilege and power. Wes hasn't always been privileged-- at the beginning of his life, he was in exactly the same situation as the boy that shared his name. However, his mother's decision to put him in military school at an early age and his resulting experiences labeled him as a "good kid" in society; in essence, he was able to prove himself to be more than just another Wes Moore. This act of fate, or "luck," is ultimately what decides Wes's future as a successful writer who gets the opportunity to go to South Africa on a Rhodes Scholar grant instead of spending the rest of his life behind bars. Thus, though the lives of the two Wes Moores seemingly diverge radically due to their dramatically different life-changing experiences in the chapter "Surrounded," both are affected similarly by "luck" or a lack thereof-- the first Wes by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and thus convicted to life in prison, and the second Wes by being in the right place at the right time and becoming a published author with a bright future.
"In both places, young men go through a daily struggle trying to navigate their way through deadly streets, poverty, and the twin legacies of exclusion and low expectations... Here, burgeoning manhood was guided and celebrated through a rite of passage. At home, burgeoning manhood was a trigger for apprehension. In the United States, we see these same faces, and our reflex is to pick up our pace and cross the street." (page 170)
The above passage highlights both the similarities and differences between the life that the author Wes has experienced and that of the other Wes Moore. Wes is talking about boys who have undergone the ritual manhood ceremony in Africa and how this affects the way they carry themselves and how they are seen in society-- how while their increased pride and confidence is seen as a good thing in their home villages, it is something to be feared in the United States. Interestingly, however, Wes does not put himself in the shoes of these young boys when describing them, but instead in the position of one of the people who fear them: he says that "our reflex is to pick up our pace and cross the street" (emphasis mine) instead of distancing himself from the subject by using the possessive pronoun "their." This choice, though it seems simple, actually highlights the differences in the parallel life stories of the two Wes Moores. The author Wes no longer sees himself as the same boy he was in West Baltimore or the Bronx, a dangerous person to be afraid of. In his own eyes, as reflected through his description of himself as the subject that fears rather than the object that is feared, he is a respectable member of society just like everyone else. The same is not true for the other Wes Moore. Despite the fact that they have had incredibly similar childhoods, while the author Wes has separated himself from the boy he was "back then," the other Wes never has. He still sees himself as the same person: a drug runner, a gang member, a danger to the society that Wes is now a part of. Although they come from the same backgrounds, the same childhood conflicts, suddenly the other Wes has become a person that the author Wes would cross the street to avoid. This difference highlights a dramatic rift in the similar life stories of the two Wes Moores, the place where their two lives diverge even more than their separate experiences as a successful scholar and perpetual prisoner. The real change is in the way that they see themselves, specifically in the way that the author Wes sees himself in the chapter "Surrounded."
"'The hands of the law would stay on him for the rest of his life... he'd never figured this. Maybe it was because he'd never thought long term about his life at all. Early losses condition you to believe that short-term plans are always smarter. Now Wes's mind wandered to the long term for the first time. Finally, he could see his future." (page 157)
In the chapter "Surrounded," both Wes Moores experience a life-changing experience. For the first Wes, it is the moment he is convicted to life in prison after being accused of killing a policeman. Not only does this take away all hope for him to have a successful future-- he will be spending the rest of his life in jail with no hope of parole-- it also forces him to change his outlook on the world, similarly to how the second Wes changes his outlook after his experience later in the chapter. Before this point, Wes never considered the long-term impact of the choices that he was making. He grew up in a rough neighborhood where getting the money to eat dinner in a few hours was more important that thinking about plans a month or even a week in advance. Learning that he is going to prison changes all this for Wes-- now he doesn't have to worry about what he's going to do day-to-day to survive, because his meals and protection will most likely be provided for him in jail. Instead, he is forced to consider how he is going to spend the rest of his life-- as Moore writes in the chapter, "he could see his future." This line emphasizes the fact that for the first time in what is perhaps a very long time, Wes has begun to think critically about his life and what he is going to do with it. Because of an incredibly negative experience, his entire outlook on life has changed from one that focuses solely on the short term to one that considers long-term effects.
"We went to school together at the University of Cape Town and studied culture and reconciliation-- a subject for which post-apartheid South Africa had become a living laboratory. Aside from the formal curriculum at the university, we would spend our lime learning the language, learning the country, and learning more about ourselves than we ever imagined." (page 164)
Just like the other Wes Moore, the author Wes has a life-changing experience in the chapter "Surrounded" through his trip to South Africa. The opportunity for him to take the trip means more than just another vacation-- he says that it was a place for him to "[learn] more about ourselves than he ever imagined." While the other Wes Moore's life outlook is changed dramatically because of being sentenced to life in prison, the author Wes also changes his outlook on the world because of the experiences he is able to have in South Africa as a result of his Rhodes Scholar grant. Later in the chapter he describes the things he has learning about race and the luck and privilege he has had even during his childhood in Baltimore after he sees the considerable more run-down shantytowns that impoverished South Africans are forced to live in. He talks about how being in South Africa makes him feel as if he is a small part of a much, much bigger world, where no one would even care if he disappeared. Before his trip to South Africa, Wes isn't quite sure what he wants to do with his life or what his place in the world even is-- his travels and experiences there are ultimately what make him decide what he wants to do and what give him the motivation to ask critical questions about the society he is a part of. In this way, just like the other Wes's experiences changes his life by making him think about what his role is and his future, the author Wes also begins to think about his future and what he really wants to do as a result of his trip.
"His lawyer argued that when Wes was questioned by Baltimore police the day after the crime, before he was announced as a suspect, he was calm, a clear sign of his innocence. His lawyer claimed the police were harassing people in the neighborhood, trying to drum up shaky evidence and confessions." (page 156)
Wes's experiences in the chapter "Surrounded" bear a striking resemblance to those experienced by the other Wes Moore. Wes is portrayed as having been accused wrongly of a crime-- in the passage before the chapter, he tells the author Wes that he was never even there on the day that his brother Tony murdered a policeman. Although the author does not take a strong stance on this position, instead choosing to report the facts more objectively, it seems very plausible that Wes was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. His racial background, his family relationship with Tony, and the neighborhood he lived in all labeled him as a potential perpetrator of the crime before he even stepped into the courtroom. In fact, the event that changes Wes's entire life is less a result of his own personal choices and more a result of his own bad luck-- arguably, he did nothing wrong in the entire crime, but he was the unlucky man who fit the description. For Wes, the bad luck didn't start the day he was convicted of killing the policeman. It started long before that, when he was born into the "wrong" neighborhood and the "wrong" race, labeled guilty before he even learned to talk by a system of institutional racism. Unlike the author of The Other Wes Moore, Wes's luck never changed-- he would wear that label forever. Here it can be seen that what on the surface looks like a random unlucky occurrence-- Wes being wrongfully accused of a crime-- has actually resulted from a long history of his own actions, his situation, and the racist system of law enforcement and criminal justice that purported existed to protect his own life. In the lives of both the other Wes, who is given a Rhodes Scholarship in part because his college adviser is friends with the director and arranges for them to meet, and Wes who is criminally convicted, the course of their lives seems to be decided by just a single event, but in reality the story is much more complex. While for the author Wes his "luck" started when he was enrolled in military academy and became tangible when he got the Rhodes Scholarship, the other Wes's "bad luck" started from the time he was a young boy on the streets and was painfully obvious in the ruling of "guilty" that sentenced him to life in prison.
"Having an advocate on the inside-- someone who had gotten to know me and understood my story on a personal level-- had obviously helped. It made me think deeply about the way privilege and preference work in the work, and how many kids who didn't have "luck" like mine in this instance would find themselves forever outside the ring of power and prestige." (page 160)
Here, Wes's thoughts mirror the experiences of the other Wes Moore as he is convicted for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The author Wes fully recognizes that he has had the opposite experience-- he was in the right place at the right time, and his mother's connections and choice to put him in military school were ultimately what allowed him to find success instead of having a future that mirrored that of the incarcerated Wes Moore. It is clear that Wes understands that this isn't because he worked harder or because he was ultimately a better person. Instead, it was because of "luck," which he explains in the form of privilege and power. Wes hasn't always been privileged-- at the beginning of his life, he was in exactly the same situation as the boy that shared his name. However, his mother's decision to put him in military school at an early age and his resulting experiences labeled him as a "good kid" in society; in essence, he was able to prove himself to be more than just another Wes Moore. This act of fate, or "luck," is ultimately what decides Wes's future as a successful writer who gets the opportunity to go to South Africa on a Rhodes Scholar grant instead of spending the rest of his life behind bars. Thus, though the lives of the two Wes Moores seemingly diverge radically due to their dramatically different life-changing experiences in the chapter "Surrounded," both are affected similarly by "luck" or a lack thereof-- the first Wes by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and thus convicted to life in prison, and the second Wes by being in the right place at the right time and becoming a published author with a bright future.
"In both places, young men go through a daily struggle trying to navigate their way through deadly streets, poverty, and the twin legacies of exclusion and low expectations... Here, burgeoning manhood was guided and celebrated through a rite of passage. At home, burgeoning manhood was a trigger for apprehension. In the United States, we see these same faces, and our reflex is to pick up our pace and cross the street." (page 170)
The above passage highlights both the similarities and differences between the life that the author Wes has experienced and that of the other Wes Moore. Wes is talking about boys who have undergone the ritual manhood ceremony in Africa and how this affects the way they carry themselves and how they are seen in society-- how while their increased pride and confidence is seen as a good thing in their home villages, it is something to be feared in the United States. Interestingly, however, Wes does not put himself in the shoes of these young boys when describing them, but instead in the position of one of the people who fear them: he says that "our reflex is to pick up our pace and cross the street" (emphasis mine) instead of distancing himself from the subject by using the possessive pronoun "their." This choice, though it seems simple, actually highlights the differences in the parallel life stories of the two Wes Moores. The author Wes no longer sees himself as the same boy he was in West Baltimore or the Bronx, a dangerous person to be afraid of. In his own eyes, as reflected through his description of himself as the subject that fears rather than the object that is feared, he is a respectable member of society just like everyone else. The same is not true for the other Wes Moore. Despite the fact that they have had incredibly similar childhoods, while the author Wes has separated himself from the boy he was "back then," the other Wes never has. He still sees himself as the same person: a drug runner, a gang member, a danger to the society that Wes is now a part of. Although they come from the same backgrounds, the same childhood conflicts, suddenly the other Wes has become a person that the author Wes would cross the street to avoid. This difference highlights a dramatic rift in the similar life stories of the two Wes Moores, the place where their two lives diverge even more than their separate experiences as a successful scholar and perpetual prisoner. The real change is in the way that they see themselves, specifically in the way that the author Wes sees himself in the chapter "Surrounded."
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