In the novel The Other Wes Moore One Name Two Fates written by Wes Moore, each Wes led similar lives but due to seemingly minor decisions in their lives their outcomes drastically differ. There are choices that will come up in life and as seemingly irrelevant or innocent those choices seem can come back and affect the outcome of one’s life. The level of commitment that one puts into their work or studies no matter if they want to do it or not, will matter down the road. As trivial as it may seem the support that family and friends offer play a major outcome in an individual’s success.
The way one’s life pans out is not solely dictated in the large moments and in the obvious factors, but the little moments and the seemingly irrelevant factors play just as big a role. Whether we realize it or not, the everyday choices that seem mundane hold the ability to affect our lives in significant ways. When Wes was a boy who just moved to his new home in Dundee Village, he went out walking and saw a boy with a cool headset. Wes went up to the boy and asked how he could get a set and the boy answered “All you have to do is wear one, and every time you see jakes roll by, you just push this button and say something” (Moore 58).
This one small act of pushing a button when the police went by was the start of Wes’s involvement in illegal drug trade. Wes made another poor choice leading to how his life ended up. Wes also made a choice and went tagging with his friend Shea, they ended up getting caught. The police arrested both Wes and Shea and while this was happening Wes thought “This man now had control of my body; even my own hands had become useless to me. More than that, he had control of my destiny” (Moore 83). This shows how a choice takes control of your destiny and once the choice s made, there is nothing that can be done and Wes learned from that. Choices can rarely be reversed and, not much can be done to fix it however your long term commitment to your studies or job can dictate the future. The amount of commitment and effort put forth into work affects what comes out that work. Wes found himself at Valley Forge after doing poorly in school and him hitting his sister pushed his mother over the edge to send him there. At first Wes did everything he could to escape from there. On his final attempt Sergeant Austin told Wes the direction the train station was in.
Wes left only to discover it was a trap and, his chain of command took him in. They gave Wes a phone call home which was forbidden to new plebs. Once this was over Wes became invested in Valley Forge and near the end of his time there, he said “Three years ago I’d been one of the insubordinate kids first entering the gates of Valley Forge. In an ironic turn, I was now one of the ones in charge of them” (Moore 115). That commitment he invested payed off Wes was a ranked member of Valley Forge, served in the Marines, and went to school at John Hopkins University and Oxford University.
Wes also invested commitment into the Job Corps with his friend Levy. Wes wanted to turn his life around and support his families with an honest living so he left the drug trade and joined the Job Corps with Levy. Wes finished top of his class in General Education Development training. Once finished with the GED training he chose carpentry as his vocational specialty. While working on a project for his carpenter training Wes said “The house was more than just a project to complete. It was a daily reminder of why he was there. These past months had been the most important and enjoyable in Wes’s life” (Moore 143).
This goes to show that when anyone puts forward effort and commitment they can find happiness. Putting forth commitment is important and affects the outcome of that person’s life, but it will not always result in a good outcome without support. Support played a vital role in the paths that both Wes’s lives took and how they ended up. While Wes was at Valley Forge, he had a ton of support from his family. Wes’s mom had to ask for money from family members just to get enough money for tuition. He also had support at Valley Forge people like Cadet Captain Hill and his chain of command helped him to get the most out of military school.
Wes commented on the faculty of Valley Forge and said “They made it clear that they cared if I succeeded, and eventually so did I” (Moore 115). This shows that the support at home and at school helped Wes get a lot out of Valley Forge and do great things. Once graduating from the Job Corps and realizing that the jobs he was getting were not constant Wes did not have a lot of support. He was trying to do things right but Alicia complained about not having enough money to raise the kids and Cheryl wanted more time with her kids this caused Wes to crack and he felt forced to turn back to selling drugs.
He thought about his problems and how they left while at the Job Corps and then he said “he realized they had not disappeared — they’d simply returned to Baltimore, waiting for him to come back. In his absence, they’d compounded” (Moore 145). This shows that instead of supporting him in his new way of making a living the demanded more until he fell to old habits. This lack of support eventually led to Wes’s downfall and how he ended up in jail. The two Wes’s shared a similar path to where the ended up but their choices, commitment, and support were critical factors in their end results.
Choices they made led them to fall onto a bad path or scared them onto the straight and narrow. Commitment is something that both Wes’s shared whether in school or the Jobs Corps. Support was a major factor in the end results one had an abundance of it and turned out to have a fruitful life. Another Wes was not so fortunate and fell back into a hole he had already climbed out of. These three little aspects of life can play large roles of who we turn out to be.
