III Chapter 3

Themes:
1. Parallel Biographies
2. Drugs
3. Importance of Education

Quotes

Parallel Biographies
1.  "...I allowed my standards at school to become pathetic" (P. 54). (Wes 1)
"He wasn't exactly excelling in the classroom, and his disenchantment with school was beginning to wear on him"(P. 58). (Wes 2)

• The first quote here is talking about how Wes 1's grades began to slip in school while the second one is talking about how Wes 2 was not excelling in school.
• At the time, both the Wes Moores were struggling in school and beginning to lose interest in learning. This is a clear example of a parallel between the two of them because they are going through similar situations.
• Both the Wes Moores are currently facing the challenge of succeeding in school, which shows that when they were children they led similar lives in one aspect. However the future of these two boys might be very different depending on how they will choose to face this challenge.
• In this chapter Wes 1 talks about how his mother may send him to military school if he does not do better in school, while Wes 2 has begun to take interest in drugs. This may be the start of how the two Wes Moores will begin to lead different lives.
• With these two boys coming from similar situations, we will see how their lives begin to differ and take different paths through the way the book is set up in the "parallel biography" style.

Drugs

2. "Besides watching Tony, Wes's first real interaction with drugs had taken place a few months earlier, just before the move out to Baltimore County" (P. 59)

• This quote is talking about the first time Wes 2 had interacted with drugs when he skipped school one day.
• Wes 2's first time doing drugs occurred at a young age. This could pose a huge problem for him in the future and could be the start of his downfall.
• Once you get involved in the world of drugs it is quite difficult to get out of it, especially at such an early age. If Wes 2 continues to use drugs he could become addicted to them , think irrationally, be expelled from school, get arrested, etc. There are endless amounts of negative consequences that could result from Wes 2's early drug use.
• This first encounter with drugs may not have seemed like a big deal to Wes 2 at the time but it may have been what ruined his whole future.

3. "He knew what this game was, the same game that had consumed Tony and put a bullet or two in him. The same game Tony continually urged Wes to stay out of" (P. 58)

• This quote is referring to when Wes 2 decided to work for a group of drug dealers in his neighborhood by warning them whenever cops passed by.
• This ties into the theme of drugs because it shows how drugs began to infiltrate into Wes 2's life. 
• From this, the reader can predict that Wes 2 might fall into the dangerous downward spiral of drugs that his brother Tony had once fallen into.
• Wes 2's early involvement with drugs may ruin his life.

Importance of Education

4. "...my mother had begun to threaten me with military school if I didn't get my grades and discipline together" (P. 54). 

• Here, Wes 1 talks about how if he does not start receiving better grades in school or behaving right, his mother will send him to military school.
• This ties into the theme of the importance of education in this book because it is evident that Wes 1's mother takes education very seriously.
• Wes 1's mother wants what is best for him and wants him to have a bright future. That is why she worked multiple jobs to send him to Riverdale Country School, an affluent private school.
• Wes 1's mother knows that education is the key to her son's bright future and success, so she does everything in her power to get him on the right track. If Wes cannot succeed in the Bronx, she may be forced to take what seem like extreme measures and send him to military school.
• Wes 1's education is very important to his mother because she wants to give him a good life and she realizes that the way to help her son succeed, is to get him to succeed in school.
• The persistence of Wes 1's mother for him to succeed in school and the importance of education to her might be one of the leading factors for Wes 1 to become successful later on in life.

5. "Baltimore City had a 70 percent dropout rate at the time. Tony had already joined that statistic; Mary wanted to keep Wes away from the same fate" (P. 57)

• This quote is talking about one of the reasons why Mary Moore decided to move her family out of their previous neighborhood in Baltimore, to one called Dundee Village. 
• Wes 2's mother, Mary wanted Wes to succeed and graduate high school and she was willing to take large measures to try to help her son do this.
• This quote ties into the the theme of the importance of education because if Wes 2's mother felt the need to move her family to a different neighborhood to help her son succeed in school, she obviously valued education.
• Like Wes 1's mother, Mary values education and wants the best for her son. She wants him to have a bright future and she sees education as the gateway to his success.
• The question is whether moving to a different neighborhood will be enough for Wes 2, to overcome the challenges of emerging successfully from his background.
• Although both the Wes Moores' mothers see education as very important, and want the best for their sons, the Wes Moores will lead different lives because of other factors.

Title Justification Paper #1

        Some authors choose to divide their books up into different parts and others do not. The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore, is a book divided into three parts. Part one of the book includes three chapters and is titled "Fathers and Angels". Part one of The Other Wes Moore is titled "Fathers and Angels" because it describes how the mothers of both the Wes Moores also served as their guardian angels and fulfills the author's purpose by setting the scene for the tragedy that will occur later on in the book.

        Both Wes 1 and Wes 2 were forced to grow up without their fathers. Wes 1's father had died when he was young. Wes 2's father on the other hand, was abusive and did not wish to be part of his son's life. Wes 2's father "...hadn't found a steady job. He spent most of his time searching for himself at the bottoms of liquor bottles" (P. 23). With both of their fathers gone or uninvolved in their lives, the Wes Moores only had one parent to raise them and that was their mothers. The author's purpose for this part of the book was to set the stage for the reader to understand the background of both the Wes Moores. Part 1 paints a picture of what type of environment the Wes Moores had to grow up in as kids. In the first part of the book we learn the essential things to know about both of the Wes Moores in order to make sense of why their paths diverged in such drastically different ways. We learn that they grew up without their fathers, we learn where the two of them live, we learn that both of them are struggling in school, and we learn that Wes 2 has begun to get involved in drugs while Wes 1 has not. The author is providing us with this information because it is vital when it comes to understanding why the two of them came to lead different lives. When reading the title of part 1, "Fathers and Angels" you would think that the title would actually read "Fathers and Mothers" because fathers and mothers are both parents. The fact that the title of part 1 is "Fathers and Angels" may suggest that the mothers of the Wes Moores are not simply mothers. They are the guardian angels for both of them. For instance both the mothers of the Wes Moores want the best for their children. They both want to make sure their sons receive a good education. For example Wes 1's mother "... decided soon after [their] move to the Bronx that [Wes] was not going to public school" (P. 47).  Instead Wes 1's mother worked multiple jobs, so that she could send her son to an affluent private school where she thought he would succeed. Wes 2's mother also valued her son's future and tried to provide him with the chance to receive a better education by moving her family out of their previous neighborhood. This shows that both the Wes Moores' mothers were strong women who only wanted the best for their sons. They would do anything to provide them with a chance to have a bright future. The Wes Moores' mothers were their protectors and angels throughout their early lives and they supported them as much as they could, with their fathers being gone. The title of part 1 "Fathers and Angels" shows that the mothers of the Wes Moores were more than just mothers, they were angels. This first part of the book sets the stage for the tragedy that will occur later in the book for Wes 2, because it provided us with details on the early lives of both the Wes Moores.

          Part one of The Other Wes Moore is titled "Fathers and Angels" because it describes how the mothers of both the Wes Moores also served as their guardian angels and fulfills the author's purpose by setting the scene for the tragedy that will occur later on in the book. The Other Wes Moore is a book divided into three parts, so it will be interesting to see what the other two parts of the book will encompass. When writing biographies it is best to divide the story into different parts?