The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore, is a story about two kids named Wes Moore with very similar backgrounds. One, the author, was a Rhodes scholar and went on to an extremely successful career. The other Wes Moore is in prison serving a life sentence. The first section of this book is titled "Fathers and Angels" and is largely about the presence of their fathers, or lack there of, and the effect this had on their lives.
This Section is called Fathers and Angels because the main characters' fathers play confusing, but important roles in their lives. "Angels" is included in the title because Wes' father is dead. The first chapter contains actual memories of the two Wes' fathers. The author's memory of his father is his death: "He died on a Friday night." The other Wes Moore's memory of his father went more along the lines of this: "A man sat on the couch leaning precariously to the side... The strong smell of whiskey wafted from his clothes and his pores.... 'Wes, meet your father.'" These two memories are very different, and affected the two Wes' futures differently.
The difference in how the two Wes' remember their fathers ties into how their respective lives took different paths, which is important enough to name the section about their relationships with their fathers. For Wes, the author, his father died when he was very young, and hear nothing but good things about him growing up. This created a perfect role model to look up to despite the lack of a physical presence. This perfect role model helped shape Wes' extremely successful journey. The other Wes, however, met his father once. This one meeting involved his father drunk and sitting on a couch. This image provided no form of a role model and was a huge disappointment to Wes. This early, subtle difference was the first that put the two Wes' on different paths.
No comments:
Post a Comment