63 pages • 2 hours read
Wes MooreThe Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
INTRODUCTION
Reading Check
1. Where did the author first visit the other Wes Moore?
2. What is the author careful to say he is not attempting to present himself and the other Wes Moore as?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why did the author reach out to Wes Moore after returning from Oxford?
2. What was the most surprising thing the author realized through his correspondence with Wes Moore?
CHAPTER 1
Reading Check
1. Where was the author’s mother born?
2. Which event and the violence that occurred in its aftermath led to Mary Moore’s desire to get an education and leave Baltimore?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What role did the author’s father play in his childhood household?
2. What similarities and differences are there between the author and Wes Moore’s relationships with their families?
Paired Resource
Baltimore ’68: Riots and Rebirth
- The images provided on this site offer a visual representation of the city-wide upheaval Wes Moore’s mother hoped to leave behind as she raised her sons.
- The legacy of racial disparities and violence in Baltimore relates to both Location Versus Mindset and the idea of Choice Versus Fate.
- What similarities do you see between the imagery in the gallery and the author’s descriptions of Baltimore in the 1980s and 1990s, and how might this legacy relate to both Joy and Mary Moore’s choices to move out of inner-city Baltimore?
CHAPTER 2
Reading Check
1. What does the author frame as a turning point in Wes Moore’s life?
2. What kind of rules does the author claim he grew up with, regardless of his Bronx hometown?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. In what ways was Wes Moore’s older brother, Tony, a role model?
2. What role did basketball play in the author’s life and as a fixture of his community growing up?
CHAPTER 3
Reading Check
1. What did wearing the headset mean for Wes Moore?
2. Who served as a role model for the author after moving to the Bronx and attending Riverdale Country School?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How did the author’s views of Riverdale differ from his mother’s?
2. What unspoken rules did the author and Justin have to understand while living in the Bronx in the early 1990s?
Paired Resource
“The Rights to the Streets of Memphis”
- This excerpt from Richard Wright’s Black Boy explores a pivotal moment in a young Black boy’s early arrival into adulthood.
- This semi-autobiographical account touches on the struggle between Location Versus Mindset and a decision between Choice Versus Fate.
- What similarities are there between the forceful coming of age in Wright’s story and those of the young men in The Other Wes Moore? To what extent are these similarities indicative of social realities in United States society, and to what extent are they circumstantial? Why might the distinction matter?
CHAPTER 4
Reading Check
1. What alter ego did the author adopt for himself as an adolescent?
2. What did the author’s mother threaten him with if he did not do better in school?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What were Mary’s intentions when she flushed Wes’s drugs down the toilet, and what were the effects of her actions?
2. How did the author’s near arrest differ from Wes’s first arrest, and what did he learn from the experience?
CHAPTER 5
Reading Check
1. What term does Moore use for low-level students like himself who just started at Valley Forge Military Academy?
2. Which two punishments would trigger uncontrollable rage in Wes Moore?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How did Ty Hill become a kind of role model for the author?
2. How did the move to Dundee affect the influence that crime had on young Wes?
CHAPTER 6
Reading Check
1. How much money was Wes’s team averaging per day in the drug trade in Baltimore?
2. What type of investment fraud does the author compare the drug trade to?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What two breaks did Wes Moore catch after the violent incident outside of his home in Dundee involving Ray?
2. What benefits and drawbacks did the author see in military school?
Paired Resource
- This article from Baltimore Magazine contextualizes Baltimore’s relationships to the “War on Drugs” of the late 1980s and explains the controversy surrounding Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke’s 1988 televised speech in which he detailed a different tactical approach to combat the drug crisis.
- This article about Schmoke’s speech explores a new perspective of Location Versus Mindset when it comes to America’s troubled War on Drugs.
- How might Schmoke’s policy recommendations related to drugs have impacted the author and the other Wes Moore? Would system-wide changes have made a difference in Wes’s choice to deal drugs?
CHAPTER 7
Reading Check
1. What three things does the author remember being told to put his trust in during his first parachuting training?
2. Which book spoke to the author on a deep level because of its candid views of the role the military played in offering a “fair shot” despite racial disparities in other American institutions?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How did Job Corps impact Wes Moore?
2. What problems did Wes Moore find insurmountable when he returned from Job Corps despite having credentials?
CHAPTER 8
Reading Check
1. Who interrupted the party of Mary Moore’s daughter as they were driving to her wedding ceremony?
2. What did Mayor Schmoke encourage the author to apply for?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How did the jewelry store robbery impact not just Tony and Wes but the whole family?
2. What impact did going to South Africa have on the author?
Paired Resource
Excerpt from My American Journey
- This excerpt from Colin Powell’s autobiography showcases his leadership style and decision-making after an American military error caused the death of more than 400 people, the majority of which were innocent civilians.
- The author Wes Moore writes of Colin Powell as a kind of Mentor after reading My American Journey.
- Based on the excerpt, what lessons might the young author Wes Moore have taken away from Powell as a role model, and how might his outlook on difficult situations have resonated?
EPILOGUE
Reading Check
1. What religion did Wes Moore convert to in prison?
2. From which university did the author earn his master’s degree in international relations?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What conclusion does the author draw regarding the difference in outcomes between himself and the other Wes Moore?
2. What does the author say is his only wish moving forward?
“I Am Because We Are: The African Philosophy of Ubuntu”
- This article offers a brief reflection on the differences between Western and South African philosophies and worldviews and how they shape responses to others.
- This connects to the theme of Location Versus Mindset.
- To what extent might the concept of Ubuntu explain both why the author felt compelled to share Wes Moore’s story and a solution for how society might move forward despite the challenges individuals face?
Recommended Next Reads
The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- In this coming-of-age memoir framed as a kind of modern epic, Coates unpacks his relationships with his father and brother, his upbringing in various Baltimore neighborhoods, and his quest for identity and liberation through Black culture despite the systemic impacts of white supremacy.
- A shared theme is The Role of Mentors in Young Lives.
- Shared topics include coming of age, racial and economic disparities and hardships in Baltimore, and the construction of identity and liberation through Black culture.
- The Beautiful Struggle on SuperSummary
- Trevor Noah reflects on the lessons, joys, and difficulties of growing up with his strong and determined mother in South Africa.
- Shared themes include Choice Versus Fate and Location Versus Mindset.
- Shared topics include mother-son relationships, coming of age, racial and economic disparities and hardships, and succeeding despite setbacks and youthful indiscretions.
- Born a Crime on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
INTRODUCTION
Reading Check
1. Jessup Correctional Facility (Introduction)
2. Victims (Introduction)
Short Answer
1. The author reached out to Wes Moore because, despite studying abroad for two years on the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, the author still thought about their shared name and different life outcomes. (Introduction)
2. The author was surprised that after “collapsing the distance” between their lives, they had more than their names in common. (Introduction)
CHAPTER 1
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. The author remembers his father as a mollifying presence who corrected infractions with reason and empathy. (Chapter 1)
2. Both were close with siblings and relied on a single mother who wanted the best for them, both had absent fathers, but whereas the author has memories of his father before his sudden death, Wes Moore’s father was absent and struggled with alcohol use disorder. (Chapter 1)
CHAPTER 2
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. As the older sibling with money and influence, Wes looked up to Tony, and Tony reciprocated by taking Wes under his wing to teach him how to survive confrontations in the crime-heavy neighborhoods of Baltimore. (Chapter 2)
2. The neighborhood courts were a kind of neutral area where people gathered but left their rivalries outside and where all types of people could meet and pick up a game. There, the author could forget about the things that made him different. (Chapter 2)
CHAPTER 3
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. While his mother viewed the prestigious institution as a way to provide the best for her son and give him a chance to get ahead, the author viewed the moneyed white institution as a source of alienation. (Chapter 3)
2. Because of high homicide rates concentrated in a few neighborhoods and among the demographic of young Black men, Justin and the author understood that they had to be home before dark, never make eye contact or smile, and keep their money in their front pockets to stay as safe as possible. (Chapter 3)
CHAPTER 4
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Though Mary sent a clear message that she wanted and expected better, the reality Wes faced was that he was out $400,000 for the flushed drugs. This led him deeper into “the game” to pay debts and recoup losses, showing that without a change of context, it can be difficult to make changes even if a person is willing. (Chapter 4)
2. Both young men had run-ins with police, though in different circumstances. The author’s violation was merely graffiti tagging, while Wes was arrested for fighting with a child who had bloodied his nose. The police ultimately lectured the author and let him go—the experience of being restrained and powerless scared him for a short time. However, like Wes, he soon reverted to his previous behavior. (Chapter 4)
CHAPTER 5
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. The author came to admire Ty Hill due to his command over his platoon and the respect his peers showed him. The author wanted to be more like Ty and took advantage of the opportunity to be mentored by him. (Chapter 5)
2. Dundee was a quieter suburb, but Wes was still bussing into Baltimore for school, to visit Tony and friends, and to continue the drug trade to earn money. (Chapter 5)
CHAPTER 6
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. After Ray beat him, Wes retrieved his gun and fired at Ray in retaliation, but the bullet hit his shoulder, and Ray lived. Because of his age, Wes was tried through the juvenile system and only for attempted murder, affording him a semblance of a “second chance.” (Chapter 6)
2. The author viewed military school as a kind of bubble that kept him safe and allowed him to focus on his development but that also separated him from his family and friends and the wider realities of the world. (Chapter 6)
CHAPTER 7
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Like the author, when completely removed from the pressures of the neighborhood and family and in the presence of caring teachers, Wes could focus on his own development and excel. (Chapter 7)
2. The kind of work Wes found after Job Corps was inconsistent, temporary, and low paying, and with four children and their two mothers to support, Wes felt pressure to return to the drug trade for the money. (Chapter 7)
CHAPTER 8
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Not only was Wes’s mother, Mary, subjected to a thorough search of her home and lengthy questioning, but police also detained Wes’s aunt Nicey’s wedding party on their way to the reception and made everyone sit on snowy curbs while they searched the vehicles for Wes and Tony. Tony was also supposed to escort Nicey down the aisle. This illustrates how a choice can have unintended impacts. (Chapter 8)
2. In South Africa, the author had the opportunity to witness and appreciate others’ resilience, such as in his host role as a freedom fighter, observing their ability to forgive, and living by the concept of Ubuntu. This perspective helped him better understand and appreciate the resilience of those living with racial and economic challenges at home. (Chapter 8)
EPILOGUE
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Though he admits that it is not possible to pinpoint a single choice or circumstance as responsible for the differing outcomes, the author does underscore the importance of strong mentors and advocates; being entrusted with constructive responsibilities; access to the right information, support, and tools to be successful with those responsibilities; and exposure to the wider world as factors that are necessary for positive outcomes for at-risk youth. (Epilogue)
2. The author’s wish is that the youth coming after him will find what it means to be free because they will have the tools and experiences to understand that where they were born will not define or limit them. (Epilogue)
