Maggie's Blog

In chapters four through six of Wes Moore’s, “The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” one theme. This is the theme of the dangers of a parent living in denial. Denial is realizing the circumstances around you, but carrying on as if they were not happening. This theme is more prominent in the other Wes Moore’s life, as the denial of the people around him allowed him to carry on down his bad path. The best example of someone like this in his life is  Wes Moore’s mother, Mary. Mary constantly lives in denial about her son’s life and his actions. The first example of this is when Wes’s brother, Tony, begins to beat up Wes because he realizes he is dealing drugs. Mary begins to defend him, even though deep down she knows about what her son is doing. Moore writes, “But the sight of Tony punching him in the face infuriated her. Maybe it was because Wes was younger than him and she knew how violent Tony could be. Or maybe it was because she wanted so much for Tony could be wrong” (Moore 71)

  While reading the first three chapters of “Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” by Wes Moore, I noticed one recurring theme. This theme was inclusion. Both of the Wes Moores wanted to feel accepted, and went to great ends to try and get this feeling. And even though they may have ended up in different places, the ways they went about to fulfill this need were not all too different in the beginning. For Wes, the best example of attempting to fit in was in his new school. He writes, “I tried to hide the fact that my family was so much poorer than everyone else’s at school. I had three ‘good’ shirts and three ‘good’ pairs of pants. I would rotate their order, mixing and matching, so that each day I had on a fresh combination” (Moore 52). This is just one of the many examples that demonstrates how far a child will go to feel included. This inability to fit in causes Wes to act out and nearly makes him fail out of his classes. His experience reminds readers just how important it is to have