Chapter 1

The Other Wes Moore: Chapter 1

Wes Moore- Author 

In the biography The Other Wes Moore, the book starts off by introducing Wes Moore the author and his family. Wes, started out the chapter by repcapping on the incident that happened with his sister Nikki. Wes accidentally punched his sister, while playing. His mother Joy’s angry and sudden reaction to him hitting his sister. While Wes hid in his room, he heard his father, trying to calm his mother down. Wes, remembered the incident because it had been the only time he had heard his father yell, and it was to defend him. Wes's mother Joy immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica with her family when she was very young. His mother grew interest in studying, justice. She joined an activist group while attending American University in Washington, D.C., where she met her first husband, Bill. Though their relationship started off well, it went downhill when Bill’s recreational drug and alcohol use became an addiction. By that time Wes's older sister Nikki was already born. His mother, left Bill after a particularly violent encounter ended with her battered, but determined. His mother soon met Westley, when she was hired as a writing assistant for his radio show. They soon got married, and had two children together. Wes’s father coming to speak to him that day about punching his sister is one of the two memories he has of his father. His other memory of his father, is from the day his father died. Westley had not been feeling well all day, and eventually had to be taken to the hospital. The doctors however did not know what to do for his symptoms and sent him home. Later that evening, he collapsed and ultimately, passed away from acute epiglottis. His death affected the entire family.

 The “Other” Wes

The other Wes Moore was introduced, and had never met his father. During this time his mother Mary was enrolled at Johns Hopkins University, but after only earning 16 credits, the budget for Pell Grants was cut and Mary lost the funding to continue her education. She had to get a job as a secretary, and it was just enough to take care of her family. Though Wes was still young, he knew something had upset his mother, and made her tell him what had happened and why she was so upset. Mary explained the situation and also how important it had been to her parents that she attends college. The chapter goes on to explain the other Wes Moore's mother's childhood. When Mary got pregnant at sixteen with her first son her mother Alma made her promise she would still go to school. However, Alma’s kidneys were failing and she passed away after an unsuccessful kidney transplant. Her father, Kenneth, was an alcoholic and did not take Alma’s death well, so Alma’s parents moved in to help raise Mary and her seven siblings. After Mary met Wes’s father, Bernard, she was pregnant within a few months with Wes. Unfortunately, Bernard was similar to Tony’s father and was an alcoholic without a steady job. Bernard only tried to be involved in Wes’s life on time, but he was extremely drunk so Mary did not allow it. Tony lived primarily with his grandparents or with his father. Despite no longer being able to attend college, Mary wanted desperately to find a way to get her family away from those dangerous streets. On the night Mary received the bad news about her Pell Grant, she decided to take Wes to his Grandmother Mamie’s house so she could relax with some friends. When they arrived, Wes ran inside and encountered a man he had never seen before. The man drunkenly sitting on his mother’s couch was Wes’s father. Mary introduced them for the first time. 

This chapter, is similar to Chris Langan's story in the book Outliers, because Chris's father disappeared before he was born, just like the other Wes Moore. Both of their stories are similar, and different at the same time. Chris's mother had four children, with four different men, and Wes's mother had two children, with two different men.