The Other Wes Moore really shows what it means to make a choice. Everything that happens in life or, for that matter, anything is due to a choice or decision at one point or another. All choices have consequences, a cause and effect. To make a decision, most people think about the situation that demands the decision and then act on it. For example, when The Veteran Wes Moore (Here after referred to as W1, The Jailed Wes Moore as W2), decides to take the (unknowingly) fake map to try to escape military school. “I looked at the map and was momentarily struck dumb. There was nothing I wanted more than to join my friends, to see my family, to leave this place.” (Pg. 91) This shows that he has priorities, like anyone does. At the time, he didn’t think of what will happen because of it, the consequences. However, when W1 finally started thinking toward the future, and how to get there, he started to succeed and never stopped. His mother gave him a little nudge to help him along “She felt my environment needed to change and my options needed to expand. Drastically.” (Pg. 95), by sending him to the military school. She made that choice by thinking about the situation, using her background knowledge to make the choice and correctly determining the outcome. In which the latter, would be the main reason why the Wes Moores had such different lives even though they had “…grown up at the same time, on the same streets, with the same name.” (Pg. xii) Both Wes Moores had negative influences, like their friends or family or even just the things surrounding both of them. Every one of those shaped who each one of them was, showing really how much everything depends on their choices, with influences factoring how they think the decisions out, and eventually it shapes lives in which some things are the same and other parts of it are completely different.
The Other Wes Moore is a very thought-provoking book. It shows the age-old lesson “You are what you choose to be.”...