The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore depicts
the lives of two children both named Wes Moore who grew up just blocks apart in
a poor neighborhood in Baltimore. One of
these boys, and the author of the book, eventually became a Rhodes scholar and is
a successful business executive, while the other Wes Moore is currently serving
life in prison for murder. The book is
devoted to finding the reasons as to why one succeeded while the other failed
despite the fact that they grew up in nearly identical circumstances.
In order to illustrate the similarities
between the two childhoods, Wes Moore utilizes parallelism throughout the
text. The most formative events in each
of the children’s lives are arranged side by side in chronological order so
that the reader can easily identify where their paths began to diverge. For example, he describes how both of the
boys struggled with grades during high school, yet while one Wes Moore decided
to drop out, the other was forced into military school. Next, Moore remains credible as an author by
emphasizing the positive and negative qualities of both him and his
counterpart, rather than just denouncing the other Wes Moore as a criminal and
bragging about his own successes. To
humanize the story of the other Wes Moore, Moore includes testimony from his
relatives and childhood pictures that make it easier for readers to relate to
him.
While Moore
makes it clear that the crime the other Wes Moore committed is inexcusable, he
also demonstrates the fact that his life might have turned out better had his
upbringing been more favorable.
Therefore, the book serves not only as an account of two different lives,
but also as a call to improve the lives of poor, urban children.
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