Johnny Dimas

Danielle Morgan

CTW1A - Lens Essay

17 October 2017

The Choices We Make

Wes Moore's book, The Other Wes Moore, depicts two black men, one of them being the

author, who were raised in the same neighborhood of Baltimore City. Sharing a common name,

but ending up in two very different places, the men had varying influences and family dynamics.

Throughout the book, the author reveals how their two paths unravel and become significantly

different. Wes Moores work correlates to the letter, My Dungeon Shook by James Baldwin

addressing his nephew in a manner in which he talks about the struggles of being a black man in

the United States. He advises his nephew on how he can overcome these adversities only by

loving his white brethren. The necessity to embrace other cultures relates to the power of choice

that Wes Moore presents throughout the book, in particular the choice to love. The choice to love

opens up opportunities to escape the societal restrictions placed on minorities and youth in the

inner cities.

Moore integrates both his personal anecdotes and experiences of violence to emphasize

the community filled with organized crime, drug use, and abuse, contributing to his and the

other Wes Moores future success. The author Wes Moore talks about the experiences of the

other Wes Moore growing up and how he was affected by the community around him. "He saw

this every day. The people who would line up around the corner for drugs. The people who

would do anything to score. He knew these people because he was the one who got them what

they needed. It was his job (Moore 138). The other Wes Moore was not only a witness to
drug abuse in his city, but also, he promoted and sold it. This illustrates their potential to speak

on the subject of living in an impoverished and dangerous neighborhood and reflecting on the

poor life choices they have made. Based on his experience of decision making that lead to his

successful life, the author Wes Moore asserts that the decisions one makes determine his or her

future.

Similarly, Baldwin asserts his own credibility on the topic of choosing to accept and

understanding your fellow humans by stating, I have known both of you all your lives and have

carried your daddy in my arms and on my shoulders...I dont know if you have known anybody

from that far back...You gain a strange perspective on time and human pain and effort (Baldwin

1). He illustrates his knowledge on the topic of humanity and begins to show why love is so

important. This is a parallel to humanity and how, historically, all humans have seen each other

grow, yet still hate on another and dont show enough love. One must choose to enforce love

toward fellow humans in order to live in harmony and free everyone from the shackles of

oppression, whether it from the past or present.

The author Wes Moore utilizes statistics to portray the community that surrounds him

and how many of the young minorities cannot make the right choices in life sometimes. He

states, Baltimore had a 70 percent dropout rate at the time. Tony had already joined that

statistic (Moore 57). The author Wes Moore presents data regarding the reality of the

Baltimore educational system and the children that reside within it. This system only views the

children as numbers and statistics that have to be dealt with, not actual people who need to

educated and supported. The statistic further supports the author Wes Moores claim that the

children of inner cities are trapped in a system that expects them to fail and the only escape is to

make wise and thoughtful decisions. Some are lucky enough to be born into families that are
supportive and can provide for them at least in a small way, giving them more leniency on the

decisions they make and options on how to escape the messed up system. On the other hand,

most of the youth are born into lifestyles that are harmful and limit them immensely in terms of

the choices they have to make throughout their lives just to survive.

Similarly, Baldwin gives his nephew some logical advice to follow in order to live a

better life and make the right choices. He states, You must accept them and accept them with

love, for these innocent people have no other hope. They are in effect still trapped in a history

which they do not understand and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it

(Baldwin 4). Baldwin makes the argument that the same people who are oppressing his people

are trapped themselves by their own past. They have to have the strength to choose to separate

from that past and not conform. The decisions made throughout life are important and essential

to creating a better life, not just for individuals, but for the whole community.

Wes Moore, appeals to the emotions of his readers through his relatability. All the stories

he includes have happened or could have happened to his intended audience, since most of them

come from rough neighborhoods where anything can happen. For instance, after the loss of his

father, the author Wes Moore says, The fact that sleeping in the living room also allowed her to

avoid the haunted bedroom shed once shared with my father was never mentioned (Moore 36).

This loss of a loved one can be relatable to anyone. Especially in the inner cities, where many

people experience death or loss of someone like a parent due to crime, illness, poor medical

treatment, or otherwise.

Likewise, Baldwin invokes feelings of marginalization and inferiority into the reader.

Such an example in the text would be, This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which,

in fact, it intended that you should perish (Baldwin 3). He illustrates the idea of how the system
we live in wants minorities to fail and become a part of an inferior sub-society of people that

cannot contribute much to the society as a whole. Baldwin knows that the system is not

intentionally set up this way, but he does suggest ideas of how to counteract the backwards

structure further on in the text. Baldwin also says, We have not stopped trembling yet, but if we

had not loved each other, none of us would have survived, and now you must survive because we

love you and for the sake of your children and your childrens children (Baldwin 3). Here he

talks more on why his nephew has to choose to survive and thrive in the harsh world that they

live in. As a minority, he has this pressure to become greater and show the world that he is worth

being treated as a human and deserves just as much as anyone else.

We have to choose to love the same people that hate us for the way we were born. The

people who oppress us and mistreat us are not at fault, it is their past that enslaves them and

make them think wrongly of colored people. We must show them what love is in order for them

to learn and create a strong sense of family. Every decision, no matter the gravity, is important to

the future and determines how people view each other. In order to present all these ideas, both

Wes Moore and James Baldwin use ethos, logos, and pathos in order to support their claims of

decision making and how they impact yourself and your community as a whole. We see how

they utilize these different appeals to the readers on a larger scale with Wes Moores book, to a

smaller scale as James Baldwin writes to his teenage nephew. Both are very effective in

communicating their claims of having to make the wise choices in life and growing as a person

for yourself as well as everyone around you.

Works Cited

Moore, Wes. The Other Wes Moore. New York Times, 2010.
Baldwin, James. A Letter to My Nephew. The Progressive. January 01, 1962.

http://progressive.org/magazine/letter-nephew/. Accessed October 26, 2017.