Monday, March 3, 2014

The Other Wes Moore Theme Tracking Chapter 3

 The Other Wes Moore Theme Tracking

Theme: Importance of Education
Quote 1:
"When we finally got to the train station, Justin asked me a question.
'Did you study yet for the English test for Wednesday?'
'Nope,' I replied.
'You know they are going to put you on probation if you don't start doing better, man.'"
Wes (author) doesn't realize the importance of education in this chapter, further developing the theme to show that some people take education for granted, like Wes (author), rather than Mary Moore who is devastated that her future turned out like this.

Quote 2:
"Tony was now full-time in the streets, splitting time between his father's and girlfriend's apartments in the Murphy Homes Projects. He was a veteran of the drug game at eighteen. He'd graduated from foot soldier and now had other people working for him. School was a distant memory; Tony hadn't seen the inside of a classroom on a regular basis since eighth grade."
Tony's devotion to being "King of the Streets", per say, pulls him away from a school setting. The theme of Importance of Education develops in this chapter because of the stark contrast of characters. Wes Moore (author) goes to school but doesn't feel like doing the work. Wes Moore 2 goes to school sometimes, often skipping, and feels like he's too smart to do the work. Tony doesn't respect the idea of an education. All of this is painfully contrasted to Mary Moore, who breaks down when she has her education ripped from her and no chance of a successful future. 

Theme: Drugs
Quote 1:
"Crack was different from the drugs that preceded it. I was crazily accessible and insanely potent-and addictive. My friends and I would regularly trade the most remarkable stories we'd overheard or witnessed: A father who left his family and robbed his parents for money to buy rock. A pregnant mother who sold her body to get another hit. Someones grandmother who blew her monthly Social Security check on crack." 
Wes (author) is now growing up in the Bronx. The theme in this chapter is mainly about drugs and how close they are to the children and adolescents that live there. 

Quote 2:
"The other difference between crack and other drugs was its method of distribution. There was so much money to be made that drug gangs rapidly expanded their ranks, sucking in some of our best friends, and turf wars became deadly, aided by the influx of sophisticated firearms. The mayhem spread form the gangs to the rest of the neighborhood. Everyone felt threatened."
Again, this shows how the theme of Drugs affects everyone around it, slowly but surely incorporating them into Drugs' little world, especially teens who are pulled into the ranks of violent gangs and children who are recruited as runners for the gang.

Quote 3:
"As he lay in bed, he realized how time seemed to stop when he was high, how the drug-smoking it, feeling its effects, recovering from it-made him forget everything else. And he understood, faintly, how addictive that feeling could be, and how easy it would be to make some money off selling that feeling to people who needed it."
This quote can also relate back to the Role Model theme in Chapter 2 where Tony is trying to make sure that Wes 2 won't go into the drug and street game, like him. Here, we see its too late for Wes 2. He's been sucked in and now he sees the promise of money, developing the Drug theme to show that people can be part of the drug trade not for the getting high aspect, but rather for the money.



Title Justification Essay
The Other Wes Moore: Fathers and Angels

     The title of this collection of chapters is Fathers and Angels. This title is appropriate for these chapters because it shows how both fathers affected both Wes Moores lives.
Fathers and Angels is appropriate for this first group of chapters because they show how the fathers themselves affect both Wes Moores lives. In the text, Wes Moore (author) argues with the other Wes Moore, saying “Come on man…You don't think about how things would've been different if he’d been there?” Wes Moore (author) seems confused because his father affected him so deeply and he missed him so much, and he can’t believe that someone else doesn’t feel that way about their own father. Wes Moore 2 has his own answer, much to Wes Moore (author)’s surprise: “Your father wasn’t there because he couldn’t be, my father wasn't there because he chose not to be. We’re going to mourn their absences in different ways.”
     Wes Moore (author) tells the story about his father’s passing. “While I knew something bad had happened, I still wasn't sure what it meant.” Wes Moore (author) was very young at the time, but he loved his father very much. Losing his father took a large toll on Wes Moore (author), in two ways. Not only did he lose a parent, he lost a role model of his. In the book, he writes “With each tiny step I took with him, my whole hand wrapped tighter around his middle finger. I tried to copy his walk, his expressions. I was his main man. He was my protector.” In saying this, we can see that Wes Moore (author)’s attachment to his father was both as a familiar and admirer. 
     Wes Moore 2’s father was absent until he turned six years old. Wes Moore 2 finally meets his father at his grandmother’s house. “He was running through the living room when he saw someone he had never seen before.” It was his father, coming down from a hangover. Wes looked at Mary Moore (his mother) “hoping she could explain who this man was.” His mother didn't know what to do, really. “Mary looked down at her son and uttered the words she had never said before and never thought she would have to say.
‘Wes, meet your father.’ ”
     Both Wes Moores' are portrayed in the first three chapters as fatherless children who face the everyday struggles without someone to talk to about them. This also shows how they’re similar in many ways, not just by their name, as Wes Moore (author) says in an interview with Stephen Colbert. The title is appropriate for these three chapters in showing that while some fathers can be angels, others are destructive and terrible, leading some to attempt to find their own angels, however messed up they may be.

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