Lack of Support/Action in TOWM

In Part II of The Other Wes Moore, the readers can get a glimpse of how their mother actions and lead their son to the current path they are in. From the previous chapters, it was seen that Joy and Mary are mothers who try to protect their children from the dangers of the drug dealing, alcoholism, and violence environment. The difference between both mothers is the naiveness and lack of action from Mary in which has affected the Other Wes as he is a drug dealer and has been incarcerated. 

The Other Wes hasn’t had the right role models to look up to as his older brother Tony is a drug dealer and his mother Mary is a drug user. Tony has always told the Other Wes to do what he says and not do what he does. Tony has always been telling him to stay away from drugs, alcohol, and violence, yet we see Tony being involved in shootings and selling drugs as well as teaching his brother how to fight. Tony’s lack of action to keep his brother from repeating his same mistakes pushed the Other Wes to follow his same path. The Other Wes is only familiar with Tony path. Thus he follows what is familiar to him. Mary unintentionally is the one that leads the Other Wes to his current reckless path by not accepting early on that her son is repeating Tony’s actions and lively hood.  In chapter 4, we learn that the Other Wes has been making money from drug dealing and he explains his cash flow and expensive purchases by telling Mary he had become a successful DJ in the neighborhood. Mary believes him and does not ask further questions. By not taking additional steps into investigating her son increase of cash flow she is showing carelessness for what her son is up to. Knowing that they live in a neighborhood where money is scarce especially legal cash flow, she rejects the thought that her son is lying. Mary may have believed him because subconsciously she no longer wanted to be a mother because of the responsibilities that come with being the parent at a young age. Tony and the Other Wes took her youth years and were not able to enjoy it. She no longer has to worry to provide for his needs as he is capable of doing so independently. In a sense, her loss of the Other Wes was her opportunity to regain her partial freedom from motherhood. Mary lack of action to prevent her son from a treacherous path entirely drives the Other Wes to drug dealing and jail.

Parallax to the Other Wes, Author Wes had the support from his family that decided to take action into redirecting his mischievous path. Like Other Wes, his environment affected the way he acted. He will skip and be a ruckus in school and will tag, spray-painting his nickname Kid Kupid in public properties. Joy, Author Wes mother, saw how he was spiraling down and she quickly took action and sent him to military school. Even though she could not afford the tuition for her son, she took it upon herself to write to every friend and family member asking for money especially her parents who gave up all their retirement fund to support his schooling.  The changes to an environment were respect and strictness is seen, it affected how Author Wes presented himself. During an altercation with drunken teenagers, he was called “nigger” and had a bottle thrown at him breaking his teeth. Instead of fighting back he decided “that the answer was no.”  Because of his mother constant support for a prosperous future for him, he was able to reflect on his past behavior and acknowledge that his past behavior was wrong. The Other Wes was not given the support that he needed to look back at his action and be aware of his wrongful doings. Joy was more of a proactive mother towards her son future than Mary who she let the drugs and violence take her son away from her.

My mother embodies the character of Joy. She does not let any circumstances prevent her from giving my sisters and I the tools to succeed. Up till sixth grade, I was attending public schools in which she did not see the system was benefiting me to obtain a subpar education. With the financial help from family and friends, she was able to enroll me to a high academic profile school. Like the Author Wes, I struggled in the beginning as the new environment expected more from me and pushed me to achieve my full potential. Not knowing if I was going to be the student they wanted me to be I was able to successfully pass their standards as Author Wes did in military school. Having someone who cares about your future like Joy does help guide the person on the right path.