Wes Moore, the author of the book titled "The Other Wes Moore", describes the story of himself and another person named Wes Moore born under somewhat similar circumstances in Baltimore. However, while author Moore himself grew up to do great things, the "other" Wes Moore in prison will spend his remaining life in prison every day on charges of murdering Sergeant Bruce Prothero. After learning about the other Wes Moore, Moore, the author begins a letter with him and eventually visits him in prison. They share many of their experiences about each other's childhoods, the environment they had, and the people they are involved with. The two work together to create a book about their lives, delving into the nature of destiny and encouraging young people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The book "The Other Wes Moore" states how important family, their environment and the people involved in their development are. The book traces the development of author Wes Moore, from reckless children to trained teenagers and prominent adults. In this book he explains how our destiny is determined by the external environment. Moore admits there isn't much difference distinguishing his fate from that of other Moores, but he says the biggest factor has been the support of his mother, Joy, along with other families and communities. His father Wesley appears very short in this book, but the impact on Moore is very large. Westley graduated from Bard College and hosted his own public program as a radio journalist. Moore says: “I tried to copy his walk, his expression. I was his main man. He was my protector." He had a very positive influence on Moore, demonstrating fair, responsible and compassionate masculinity. His words also show that kind words are a better form of discipline than harsh punishment. However, his father sadly passed away. He also underlines «I thought about my father and the name he chose for me». Moore suggests that his father formed a person who would still be Moore even if he had not physically existed in his life. After Westly's death, Moore's mother, Joy, feels a strong responsibility to protect her children due to her husband's absence. He does three things to support his family and sends Moore to Riverdale, a private school like college with John F. Kennedy. Moore points out, "My mother saw Riverdale as a refuge, a place where I could escape my neighborhood and open my horizons." Joy believes that when she enrolls Moore in Riverdale, it will help him broaden his horizon and have a better life. He hopes this will allow Moore to escape his neighbor while pursuing a better future. At this point, it shows that he is trying to provide a better environment for his son. Moore further states, “Wes, you're not going anywhere until you try this place. I'm so proud of you, and your dad is proud of you, and we just want you to try. Too many people sacrificed so you could be there.” This quote reveals Joy's approach to Moore. She says she and her husband think Moore is a proud son, supporting and encouraging him. He tried to reinforce his son's responsibility by informing him that others would sacrifice themselves for him. On the other hand, prisoner Wes' mother, Mary, is undoubtedly wise, selfless, and hardworking. The author demonstrates: “Since leaving high school years earlier, Bernard had not found stable employment. He spent most of his time looking for himself in the bottom of liquor bottles." His father Bernard, however, ruined his life with irresponsibility, destructiveness and addiction. These twoOppositions exist in Wes's path. Wes feels that Mary needs to be protected because her father never came to help her. Although his half-brother Tony and his mother Mary try to keep Wes on a responsible path, he ultimately ends up following his older brother into the drug game. The author states: “And the drug game was everywhere, with a gun handle protruding from the upper waist of one in ten teenagers. People living in the Murphy Homes felt like prisoners, held in check by roving gangs of armed kids and a nightmarish army of drug addicts. This is where Tony chose to spend his days." Tony spent most of his time at Murphy Homes Projects and has been dealing with drugs since the age of ten. At age 14 he is a "certified gangster" with a ferocious reputation. Tony constantly tries to persuade Wes to pursue another path, but he admits that there is no way for him to give up and make the same decision he made himself. Wes ignored Tony's words and admired his brother for his actions. Regardless of Tony's words, Wes is impressed by Tony's tough stance and tries to act like his older brother without following the advice. Author Moore has good friends around him. Moore's best friend, Justin, is one of the few black kids in Riverdale. The author says: “I had forgotten how to behave naturally, overthinking every situation and getting trapped in the contradictions between my two worlds. My confidence took a hit. Unlike Justin, whose maturity helped him handle this transition much better than me, I started to let go of my grades.” Justin is a good student and has been warned by the Riverdale faculty to avoid Moore, but Justin ignores this advice. Justin has a special level of difficulty in his life. His mother died of Hodgkin's lymphoma when he was in high school, and in college Justin develops a rare form of cancer at the same time as his father dies in a house fire. However, Justin recovered and had a successful career in education. Moore must have been challenged by his friends to see him living hard in difficult circumstances. Another person who influenced him through the book would be Captain Hill. He says, “With the support of people like Cadet Captain Hill and others in my chain of command and faculty, I had really begun to enjoy military school.” Captain Hill is a young black man with an exceptional level of differentiation at Valley Forge level. He became one of Moore's mentors and was one of the groomsmen at Moore's wedding a few years later. Two other people to announce as good friends are Zinzi and Simo. Both the boys and Moore met when Moore visited South Africa and became close. The author states “My friendship with Zinzi and Simo had also grown considerably”. Moore experienced other cultures and gained enlightenment through both of his friends. As such, Moore had many great people who influenced him, and they were clearly the ones who helped him be better. The other Wes in prison also had friends who influenced him for better or worse. When Wes moves to Northwood, Woody becomes friends with Wes. “They ignored Woody until he shouted: “If you don't let him go, I'll have to kill someone! Moments later, Woody was also in handcuffs," according to the author. As a child, Woody has a positive effect on Wes and prevents him from pulling a neighbor boy's knife. Woody is the only group of Wes' friends to graduate from high school in high school, but from then on he still spends time in prison. Eventually, he decides to leave the streets by finding work astruck driver. Cheryl is Wes' girlfriend. Slightly older than Wes, she is a heroin addict and makes no attempt to hide her drug use from him. The author writes: "Just a month ago, he realized he was missing some money and lectured Cheryl: Stop bringing your friends to my house if they're going to steal my things!" His appearance does not help Wes as a spouse or partner at all, but rather shows a worse influence. Wes thinks his life is frustrating at some point due to watching her and her two children. He was sick and tired of seeing drugs destroy families and communities. Levy is a friend of Wes who seeks advice if Wes decides to quit the drug game. The author demonstrates, "He knew the pay would be less than what he earned on the streets, but the work was steady and honest, and he would have more time to spend with family without looming injury, death or incarceration." In the whole story, Levy is the only friend who ran away from where the drag games are present. Wes seems to lack people to guide him out of harmful decisions. Author Moore's environment is in fact not perfect or good. He lost his father as a child and his mother had to live with the obsession of protecting her children. Maybe that's why he sent Moore to Valley Forge. He would have thought the environment would be better for his son. According to the author, “It was then that I began to understand that I was in a different environment. Not simply because I was in the middle of Pennsylvania instead of the Bronx or Baltimore. It was a different psychological environment, where my normal expectations were reversed, where leadership was honored and class clowns were ostracized.” It was a wise choice of his mother Joy to send him to a military school. There he realizes how good his environment is. Not only the environment itself, but also the esteemed people and colleagues who exist there, he learns and feels a lot. Eventually there he had the opportunity to meet Captain Hill, the mantle of his life. As such, environmental factors provide relationships not only with the environment itself, but with the people who inhabit it. The environment that Tony and Wes faced was perhaps a fate that needed to be accepted by them. The author describes: “Wes noticed one of his boys leaning out of a window along with dozens of other people, who were now watching curiously. The guy was one of Wes' partners in his drug operation, and when he saw Wes standing in the night air, his face bloodied, gun in hand, he got the signal to join the fight.” In this situation, it's clear that Wes couldn't pretend he didn't know. The place where he lived was the scene of a drug trade full of dangerous elements. It was Wes himself who decided to sell the drug, but he pushed him into such an environment because his older brother had started taking the drug before that. Trying to break out of the environment wouldn't be easy for Wes. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The author states, "In Baltimore in 1991, 11.7 percent of the population had given birth to girls between the ages of fifteen and nineteen. More than one in ten. They also did not feel burdened by the thought that the Premature motherhood would ruin his future plans, because he didn't actually have any future plans. And he wasn't overly stressed by the responsibilities of fatherhood: he didn't even know what it meant, in some unspoken way, he had the feeling that he was going through a point of not return, that things were about to get complicated in a way he wasn't equipped to handle. The community Wes lived in was where one in ten teenagers had a child..