63 pages • 2 hours read
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
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Symbols & Motifs
Streets
City streets serve as symbol in the text, which is primarily divided between settings in Baltimore and the Bronx. Proximity to the streets, which in the boys’ neighborhoods are plagued by drugs, death, and other violence, certainly influences their worldview and behavior as children. The streets are as much a mentor to Wes as anyone else, including his older brother Tony. The author learns harsh lessons about life’s impermanence from street violence; he also encounters racism just walking down the road.
The symbolic weight of city streets becomes heavier once the book details how the lives of each Wes Moore diverged. The author was afforded opportunities away from the street, like private and military schooling. In contrast, Wes could never quite escape. Even after he completed job training at Job Corps, the second he returned to Baltimore, he was pulled right back into the life on the streets.
Identity
Identity is a motif that recurs throughout The Other Wes Moore. In researching and writing the book, the author became wrapped up in the story of another man with his same name and a similar background. In so closely examining the life of the other Wes Moore, in comparing and contrasting their experiences, the book also becomes an examination of the author himself.
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