The Other Wes Moore, One Name, Two Fates

The Other Wes Moore One Name, Two Fates 

by Wes Moore

                         

My classmate and I were lucky that we have read some articles also two useful books during last semester, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg and the memorial novel The Other Wes Moore, One Name, Two fates by Wes Moore here is my last essay about some concept that I have learned in this semester.

What makes the difference?

“Remember we can’t select our future but we can choose the road that helps us make our future better” (Anonymous). Every person grows up in different conditions. It is impossible to find two people that are living and growing up in the exact same condition. Family, circumstance, relationship, culture, classmate, and even religion are effective in life. While growing up, people face many events, but have opportunities and situations that are necessary for making decisions about them. This decision and the outcome for these conditions that make our destiny might be wrong. People who make wrong decisions fail, and their life can even be destroyed; also along with their life, the life of the people who are related to them can be ruined as well. Trying to fix a situation made by a wrong decision takes time, and gets the energy to get back to regular conditions. Backgrounds and many other reasons help in making decisions. It is not possible to find which factors are the main reasons, or important reasons to end up in various outcomes of decisions. For example, poverty or rich family, and social classes cannot be the main reason; because there have been many people who had poor families, but they have become successful people in their lives, like Oprah Winfrey, Howard Schultz (The President of Starbucks). However, the memoir titled The Other Wes Moore One Name, Two fates, proves that being in poverty cannot be the main factor that leads people to their fates. It illustrates two boys in the same area zone and time, and more interestingly, had the same name, who chose different ways for their lives.

Two boys with same names, the same age, and also the same place of living, Baltimore. (located on the border of Washington, D.C.), have hardships during growing up in a community where its residents are almost all black people. Nevertheless, one of the boys becomes successful and gets a good job, and a worthy position, from a special assistant to the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. And the other boy has an untenable life he engages with crimes, and spends his life in prison instead of spending it with his family and his kids; because he communicates with his brother, Tony, and some other bad guys, and in the end, they kill a cop during Stealing jewelry. In the first view, the audiences expect both of the boys to become successful, and good people actually; in other words, they want them to have the same ending in life, just like their names, but “each of them was going through their own personal journey, and search for help. One of them received it; the other didn’t” (186). Their Fates were different from their names. At the end of this true story, Wes Moore (the writer of the story) says many people ask why they chose different ways, and he answered: honestly I don’t know and I am looking for what the causes are. Then he decided to understand more about his citizen that his name is similar to him. In the autobiography, The Other Wes Moore One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore, there are stories about two boys that display every person make their own lives by their own decision. Specifically, in this story, the fates of these boys are witnessed by the audience; they end up having different fates, because of different decisions, and different choices. The destiny of these two boys teaches that living in poverty and inconvenient location cannot make up our fates; also this story illustrates that besides these factors, there are some other important causes like grit, habit loops, belief, and habit of mind of responsibility that makes up the destiny.

A Japanese proverb says it is not important how many times you fall, it is important how many times you get up. Many people have been in a situation in which they have a problem that engages them with some issue that seems hard to overcome. What should be done in these situations? Everyone reacts in a different way in the same situations; some become disappointed, some get help from other people, and ask for some counseling from someone who knows how to help. In hard situations, some people just think about them, and some think and try to fix the problem. Based on the article “The Significance of Grit” by Angela Lee Duckworth, when people face some issues, at first, they should think about problems and maybe try some ways to find out the solution with grit. Also according to this article, grit that shows an important role in people’s successes can be defined as resolve and long-term commitment to a goal.

According to “The Significance of Grit”, by Angela Lee Duckworth, grit is an important part of our activity to reach success. Students have different talents, and potentials, but what causes achievement is grit. Grit and talent either aren’t related at all or are actually inversely related (16).” Thus we are aware of the fact that talent is very important for success, but grit plays an important role in every person’s success. A lot of students and their friends have talents and they are smart, but only some of them achieve their goals in their lives; they own a business, gain an academic degree, or get a deserved position. In the novel The Other Wes Moore One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore, an important fact is the difference between Wes Moore and the other Wes Moore is grit; the quality that enables individuals to work hard, and stick to their long-term passions and goals. Continuing and persevering to learn in military school by Wes Moore, and leaving High school and Job Corps Center by the other Wes Moore, are attempts of grit to become successful and unsuccessful. They are the pattern of grit. Therefore, most people have talent, but only some of them achieve their goals. Having grit and continuing to gain their goals need working hard, and practicing for a long time. This is the secret of success.

In every society, some people are responsible, and some of them are irresponsible about some actions. However, everyone has a responsibility during his or her life at least or a few times, about his or her self and their relatives. Responsibility is a part of one’s main character. This means based on the article “Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing,” responsibility is “the ability to take ownership of one action and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others” (5). It is clear that the result of our actions affects ourselves and others. Decisions come from responsibility. This decision at first is related to one’s self and then can be related to others. Then it is important how a person can handle his or her responsibility. The consequences of the orders of a president or a leader in each country are related to its nation, and a lot of people around the world; just like a father’s decision in a family is related to every member of the family. Some responsibilities are out of control, then in this case a person is only responsible for authority. In the novel, Both of Wes's brothers are responsible to choose their duties; they make mistakes during the story. Some of their decision just affect their own life and some of their decision affect their family and they're social too. For example, In the fifth part of the novel The Other Wes Moore One Name, Two fates by Wes Moore, when Wes Moore makes the decision to have sex with Alicia, he should accept the consequences of the action that may happen for himself, Alicia, their family, and also their kids; he should accept his responsibilities as a father of his kids, a boyfriend of Alicia, and also as a citizen of his society.

Both Wes Moores have approximately the same situation at first; they live in the same location, they are African - American boys and their moms are single moms, and the important point is that they grow up at the same time of history, and like many children, they have some wrong actions during childhood. They get arrested by cops because of their actions. At least someone helps them choose the right way; the mother of Wes Moore who is the writer of the story, sends him to Military school; and the uncle of the other Wes Moore warns him to not become a drug dealer because he knows that Wes Moore’s money is not from Djing. Also, his friend Levy who was a bit younger than Wes, but manages to get out of the hustling game, encourages him to join Job Corps Center that is designed to help disadvantaged youth to learn, and make them able to get a job and improve their lives. In the book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg, it is claimed that the habit loop has three aspects and he calls them a cue, a routine, and a reward. For Wes Moore who is caught in jail, gaining easy money is a cue that triggered him to sell drugs, and be a gang to steal some things are the routines. Buying luxurious and expensive shoes, and clothes was his reward. To change this habit loop, Wes needed to change his routine, selling drugs. “For some reason, he couldn’t let the sale go” (Moore, 112). When he graduates from the Job Corps Center and he is able to make a house for his daughter, he gets the opportunity to make a new way for his life, but he does not believe it. The chapter that Duhigg’s book talks about AA’s group teaches the fact that something that makes a new habit loop stronger is “belief” (Duhigg 81). Belief is an important concept to achieve a change in the routine of a habit, and save a new routine without setback. Without belief, a habit may switch back again in hard situations. Wes gets back to crime because he does not believe in his new habit loop and the decision that he makes after graduating from Job Corps Center.

While Angela Lee Duckworth talks about the relationship between grit and achievement she emphasizes grit; she claims grit is more important than IQ, and in education, IQ is measured.  However, it was not the only difference between students, and other people to reach. She presents in Super Soul that “Grit is passion and perseverance for long-term goals”. Having grit is more important and more effective in our fate; in fact, because of having grit, someone with less talent becomes more successful more than someone who has more talent. Thus, for motivating and having grit, people should take and remember responsibilities for themselves and other people. By changing inappropriate habits certainly, people take necessary steps to help themselves and their society. The author of The Other Wes Moore One Name, Two fates believes that the two characters could change; that is why he is interested in following the other Wes fate to understand and make a comment for the audience to make them aware of the young people, and their families to take their responsibilities about oneself and other relatives moreover taking perseverance and stamina for the day in, day out. Many reasons can change lives and determine people’s futures, but the main factor in this process is personal acts. Therefore, the goal of Wes Moore by writing The Other Wes Moore One Name, Two fates is to make people aware and give them the notice to help themselves and others, by defining their destiny by accepting responsibilities and continuing life journeys by believing in making the right decision to change unsuitable habits.

دو انسان با یک نام و دو سرنوشت در دو محیط و خانواده ایی متفاوت. دو کودک با نام و نام خانوادگی مشترک "  وست مور   "  ٕ بعد از سالها بواسطه اتفاقی همدیگر را ملاقات می کنند. دو نفری که سرنوشتی کاملا متفاوت دارند

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