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Ricardo Alvarez

Professor Lasley

Creative Thinking & Writing I

15 November 2017

The Tragedy is that my Story could have been His;

The Impact of Class and Surrounding in The Other Wes Moore

In Its Time for Class: Toward a More Complex Pedagogy of Narrative, Amy Robillard

places a heavy importance on the use of the personal narrative as a means to understand the

struggles faced by students from the middle class as a result of their altered perception of time and

socio-economic background. In order to do so, Robillard puts herself into the essay as she uses her

own personal narrative to demonstrate the effects not only her education has played, but how her

surroundings allow for her to gain a new perspective, while being able to retain her old identity.

Ultimately, Robillard argues for that the use of the personal narrative serves as the bridge between

the working class and the classroom as their stories begin to matter and serve a purpose, just as

how the author Wes Moore does so to the other Wes Moores life.

Throughout the Other Wes Moore, the author, Wes Moore, analyzes not only his own, but

the personal narrative of the other Wes Moore, to understand what led the two to have such a stark

contrast in their livelihood, even though their shared, similar beginnings. By doing so, Moore gives

a new meaning to not only his own personal narrative, but also to the other Wes Moores, as their

narratives demonstrate the roles in which our surroundings and socio-economic status influence

their outcomes in life. With Robillards understanding of the personal narrative, the positive shift

in the author Wes Moores life occurred as a result of his change in surrounding and his inability

to limit himself to confines of his socio-economic class, whereas the other Wes Moore allowed
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himself to never take control of his life as he defined himself through the perception of others and

to never see past the current moment; which ultimately led to life sentence.

In order to differentiate between the two Wes Moores, the author Wes Moore will be

bolded, whereas the other West Moore would be underlined throughout the rest of the paper.

Similar to Robillards relationship with her mother and obsession for always being on time,

Wes Moores surroundings, whether that be his family or those he met, forced him to not only

move past his early stages of rebellion and disobedience, but by adapting to his surroundings and

experiences, he would be led down the path that would eventually allow for him to become a

Rhoades Scholar. Even through his toughest stages, Wes mother, Joy, continued to pay for his

private education in efforts as she would continue to pay for his education, even when they could

not afford it. Rather than focus on his lack of attempts in school, she would continue to say, I am

proud of you, your father is proud of you to emphasize the communal support that was behind

him and therefore give him the motivation for him to succeed. Although his father passed away

when he was young, Wes has been given the opportunity to have a proper development, where

never felt in which he had to provide for the family or that he had a gained an added responsibility.

However, Wes was unable to experience the proper surroundings during his time at Riverdale as

his problem was that they did not understand his situation, (54) where they dismissed his

personal narrative and rather than help guide him through this time, they easily dismissed or

focused their time on another student. This would only lead Wes down a path of misbehavior and

would evetually lead him to enroll in Valley Forge. Throughout his beginning time at Valley Forge,

their socio-economic status did not matter as the newly enrolled cadets were the same now, (90)

as they were all to begin for the same position. For Wes, this was his opportunity to build himself

around respect and dignity, where he no longer had the influence of those such as Shae, but was
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now exposed to those such as Cadet Captain Hill, which emphasized respect that cant beat or

scare out of people (96). Inevitably, these new surroundings that Wes was introduced to allowed

for him to connect with people that inspired to see the boundless possibilities of the wide world

and the unexplored possibilities within myself (179) that now placed an emphasis on the

improvement of his mind and intellect over his street reputation.

As a result of these encounters, Wes Moore no longer allowed for his social class to

indicate his actions, rather he now focused in defining his own ability and not limit himself to the

perceptions associated with the lower class, which in the end allowed for him to begin his

ascension upward. In conjunction with Robillard, Wes reflects upon his own life to bring about

its potential for self-discovery (Robillard 82) as he uses his story to show his development not

only as a student but as an individual. Through his ability to reflect upon his actions, Moore was

able to communicate his personal narrative to Paul White, the Assistant Dean of Admissions at

John Hopkins University, became his advocate on the inside as he gotten to know me and

understood my story on a personal level (Moore 160). In addition to this, Moore breaks the

common perception of the people from the working class as they dip into and out of college,

pulling from it what they [see] as current needs" (Robillard 75), but begins to understand through

his ability to analyze and understand a text, he is now able to be introduced to new ideas of thought

and perspective. Wes demonstrates that he takes a holistic approach to his studies as not simply an

action that he is required to take but a window into new worlds (Moore 131), where his

perspective is not solely focused on one viewpoint, but to understand the ways in which it can be

applied toward his own life. Along with this, Wes seeks to improve himself and does so by

understanding his own narrative, in that through his own transition, he has the ability to become

something more and have an impact onto the lives of others, just as those have done to him.
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In stark contrast to the growing success of Wes Moore, the other Wes Moore never saw

the personal value within his own personal narrative, which caused him to rely on the perception

of others to create his self-worth and identity, which would lead him to believe these harsh

perceptions as truths and facts to create himself. Throughout her essay, Robillard stresses the

restrictions placed on the working-class students that by devaluing their narrative, the can deny

certain students the opportunity to develop a class consciousness, (Robillard 76) and force them

to think of themselves as only one way, stripping them of understanding their narrative and

understand themselves. For Wes Moore, the lack of a father figure and the toughness of an older

brother such as Tony forced him to abide by Murphy Law as it was imposed onto him without

knowing nothing else. Without the influence of a father or mother figure, Wes turned to violence

and a life of drugs as he did it in secondhand gear (Moore 57) to show that Wes accepted these

ideals as truths without understanding the impact that it placed onto not only him, but the people

around him. By not having the ability to reflect on his own, Wes never obtains the ability to think

on his own, where he now becomes simply another member of the community where the headset

now fit perfectly (Moore 62) to show that he is now a part of a larger cycle of gang and violence.

Without similar influences that Wes Moore experienced, Wes Moore finds himself enable to see

the implications of his own actions until he realizes that the suffering within his own family, such

as the drug addiction of Cheryl, is directly his fault since he never understood the implications of

his actions. To Wes Moore, his personal narrative was preset for him and his inability to truly

understand himself as an individual forced him to understand the world in terms of monetary and

momentary gain without understanding the effects it played onto his everyday life.

As he was restricted to the common perception of the lower class, Wes Moore allowed for

his socio-economic status to develop his understanding of time, where there was no emphasis
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placed onto the future as his actions were only chosen on the current needs of the moment. For

Robillard, the working class only sees the experience of disjointed time threatening the ability of

people to form their characters into sustained narratives (Robillard 31) where the focus is solely

on the how to get through the day and never truly planning for what lies ahead. Within the

communities that brought up Wes Moore, time is viewed only through the momentary because of

the high death rates amongst teens involved in drugs and gang violence. Due to this, life was never

thought to far into the future, which for Wes Moore who always seemed at risk (Moore 133)

struggled with understanding how the implications of their action affected them long term. For

Wes, he saw life in terms of monetary values as his role in dealing drugs was brought about by the

idea that there was serious money to be made (Moore 82) without the need for much effort and

ability to work. For Wes, his understanding of money was comprehended by how fast he was able

to turn a profit, which would eventually lead him to the killing of Office Prather and ultimately

see his life in the long term. As much of his young life was spent in an out of being incarcerated,

Wes began to see his success coming in the short term as early losses conditions you to believe

that short term plans are always smarter (Moore 157). Along with his inability to understand his

own narrative, Wes never saw the consequences of his own actions until his conviction and

sentence to life without parole. From this point onward, Moore was presented with a clear picture

of the events for his life and finally, he could see his future (Moore 157). For Wes to truly

understand the implications of his actions and perception of time, he is ultimately given a clear

picture of what the future holds for him.

To conclude, the author, Wes Moore, uses his own personal narrative in contrast to Wes

Moore, the convict who shares the same name as him, to understand the what brought such stark

contrast to their outcomes. With both facing similar backgrounds, the authors use of personal
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narrative does not limit his perspective when analyzing his counterparts life, Wes Moore. The

main purpose of this novel no longer serves as a simple retelling of events, but Wes Moores desire

to find the discourse of events that led to his success as Rhodes Scholar, but the events that led to

a life of conflict and struggle for the other Wes Moore. Therefore, Wes Moore use of his personal

narrative not only further analyzes the context in which led him to his success, but to stand as a

counterpart and new perspective to further understand the inputs and course of events that led to

the demise of Wes Moore.