The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
Theme Tracking
Chapter 7: The Land that God Forgot
Theme 1: Looking up to a role model can change a person's life.
3. "As I started to think seriously about how I could become the person I wanted to be, I looked around at some of the people who had the biggest impact on my life." page 132
Role models are a big part of most people's lives. Admiring someone the way Wes admires the important people around him can direct a person in many different directions. Trying to be like other people can cause a person to try to be successful or it could cause a person to make decisions that send them to prison. Whether a person in your life has a negative or a positive effect on you, it's important to take note of how their actions made you feel because this can better help you figure out what kind of person you want to be.
3. "As I started to think seriously about how I could become the person I wanted to be, I looked around at some of the people who had the biggest impact on my life." page 132
Role models are a big part of most people's lives. Admiring someone the way Wes admires the important people around him can direct a person in many different directions. Trying to be like other people can cause a person to try to be successful or it could cause a person to make decisions that send them to prison. Whether a person in your life has a negative or a positive effect on you, it's important to take note of how their actions made you feel because this can better help you figure out what kind of person you want to be.
Theme 1: People make drastic life decisions at a young age.
1. "A year after completing the Job Corps training, Wes realized the only consistency in his employment was inconsistency. That, and the fact that none of these jobs paid over nine dollars an hour." page 144
This quote exemplifies the theme that people make drastic life decisions at a young age because it shows how decisions Wes made as a kid continued to impact him throughout his adult life. Most people like to believe that working hard in life will end in success. However, in a situation like Wes's, it is evident that a person's past can haunt them for the rest of their lives. Even though Wes spent nine months in Job Corps, working hard and learning how to build, he still couldn't find a job that would cover his expenses and support his family. Opportunities like job corps are supposed to help people rebuild their lives in a positive way, but after making such dangerous life decisions early in life, it is challenging to completely change a person's ways of living. Opportunities can keep a person occupied for a bit, but lack of money can keep a person repeating the same bad choices forever.
1. "A year after completing the Job Corps training, Wes realized the only consistency in his employment was inconsistency. That, and the fact that none of these jobs paid over nine dollars an hour." page 144
This quote exemplifies the theme that people make drastic life decisions at a young age because it shows how decisions Wes made as a kid continued to impact him throughout his adult life. Most people like to believe that working hard in life will end in success. However, in a situation like Wes's, it is evident that a person's past can haunt them for the rest of their lives. Even though Wes spent nine months in Job Corps, working hard and learning how to build, he still couldn't find a job that would cover his expenses and support his family. Opportunities like job corps are supposed to help people rebuild their lives in a positive way, but after making such dangerous life decisions early in life, it is challenging to completely change a person's ways of living. Opportunities can keep a person occupied for a bit, but lack of money can keep a person repeating the same bad choices forever.
2. "As the baking soda swirled in the rapidly heating pot, Wes held the plastic bag with both hands and poured in nine ounces of cocaine." page 145
Wes tried to find a better life, but evidently fails and returns to his drug selling ways. In communities, like the one where Wes grew up, that are ridden with crime and drugs, the only clear and straight forward job to do is to sell drugs. When faced with a decision on how much money to make, it is more appealing to choose a job that pays more. Drugs have a high price so the sellers are guaranteed a stable income if they are loyal to the business. Even if a person makes a conscious choice to change and be better, that one choice has very little value if all the other choices that they have made earlier in their life are negative.
Theme 3: Drugs and crime can drive individuals in a community to extremes.
4. "The sight of her coming off of her high, stumbling to the bathroom, disgusted Wes... The people who would line around the corner for drugs... He knew these people because he was the one who got them what they needed. It was his job."
page 138
This quote shows the theme that drugs and crime can drive individuals to extremes because it shows the direct effects of drug use on Wes's children's mother. Being involved in the drug trade was probably pretty easy for Wes until they started to negatively effect people he is close to. Sometimes it takes an actual experience to understand the dangers of drugs. Wes was driven to a point of no return in terms of his involvement in the drug trade until he realized what he was really circulating throughout his community. The buying and selling of drugs not only hurts the people taking and getting high off the drug, but it also hurts the people around them. Drug dealers might not always see what extremes people in the community are driven to, until a loved one is sucked in and hurt by them.
This quote shows the theme that drugs and crime can drive individuals to extremes because it shows the direct effects of drug use on Wes's children's mother. Being involved in the drug trade was probably pretty easy for Wes until they started to negatively effect people he is close to. Sometimes it takes an actual experience to understand the dangers of drugs. Wes was driven to a point of no return in terms of his involvement in the drug trade until he realized what he was really circulating throughout his community. The buying and selling of drugs not only hurts the people taking and getting high off the drug, but it also hurts the people around them. Drug dealers might not always see what extremes people in the community are driven to, until a loved one is sucked in and hurt by them.
Theme 4: Parenthood can change a person's life.
5. "Wes had to reconsider what it meant to be a father. He wanted to protect his young daughter, shelter her... Without a thought about what he was taking on, he announced that he wanted to build her a house." page 142
This quote shows the theme that parenthood changes a person's life because it shows how Wes's attitude changed and he decided he wanted to do everything he could to make sure his daughter was safe and happy. Although a small wooden house would not fully shield Wes's daughter from danger, it would at least comfort Wes and offer him a peaceful state of mind. This protection from the streets is thoughtful but also hopeless keeping in consideration the percentage of people who go into the drug ring and never come out. In order for a person to do well in school and not get involved in illegal business it takes self will, not just warnings and wooden houses that offer protection, to make that goal a reality.
This quote shows the theme that parenthood changes a person's life because it shows how Wes's attitude changed and he decided he wanted to do everything he could to make sure his daughter was safe and happy. Although a small wooden house would not fully shield Wes's daughter from danger, it would at least comfort Wes and offer him a peaceful state of mind. This protection from the streets is thoughtful but also hopeless keeping in consideration the percentage of people who go into the drug ring and never come out. In order for a person to do well in school and not get involved in illegal business it takes self will, not just warnings and wooden houses that offer protection, to make that goal a reality.
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