by Jacob Dodds

The memoir The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates illustrates the differences between how masculinity is defined and developed by two African American boys who live through similar situations. As both boys age into men throughout the course of the memoir, each establishes his own perspective of masculinity. Despite the fact that both the author Wes Moore and the prisoner of the same name he interviews in segments of the memoir were both raised in the poverty of the Bronx and West Baltimore, respectively, each man diverged onto a separate path in discovering what it means to “be a man.” The outlying factors that transform these adolescent boys into young men are ultimately a combination of environmental and social factors that alter each individual’s viewpoint of masculinity as they garner an understanding of the person that they perceive they are. These factors can ultimately be narrowed down into three direct influences-including family, socioeconomic status and education-that support the theme of masculinity for the memoir The Other Wes Moore.

The families of each Wes Moore weigh heavily on the social perspective and understanding of the idea behind masculinity. Ironically, the family member absent from the childhoods of both boys has the greatest influence on both individuals. Both the father of the author and the father of prisoner Wes Moore are not involved in the raising of either child for separate reasons. Despite the fact that the author Wes Moore’s father was absent due to an untimely death, he still managed to make a heavy impact on Wes’ perception of masculinity.

Wes remembers “I tried to copy his walk, his expressions. I was his main man. He was my protector” (11). An incident in which Wes hits his older sister reinforces his idea that a man is a protector of one’s family when his father states “you just can’t hit people, and particularly women. You must defend them, not fight them” (11). Even in his youth Wes absorbs the message his father is sending him because of his desire to be more like him.

Conversely, the imprisoned Wes Moore receives negative reinforcement about his perception of masculinity indirectly from his father, whose absence is of his own choice and unforced unlike that of the author’s father. The specific social element that the imprisoned Wes’ father indirectly influences is Wes’ perception of women. For example, because his own father was reluctant to establish his role as a protector of his family, Wes in turn views a woman as “a jump-off, a sexual time filler” (103), or a possession he can discard as he pleases if it interferes with his own interests . Also, Wes’ masculine view of women as possessions is dictated by the way his grandmother treats him because of his father’s absence. Wes became used to receiving special treatment from women without asking because “his father’s mother spoiled him” (16) when his own mother was away or unable to provide adequate care.

Despite the fact that the imprisoned Wes Moore was without the presences of his biological father growing up, he manages to find a father figure in his older half-brother, Tony. Tony accepted his own situation in the ghetto as an unsolvable problem, and as a result, built up a reputation as a fierce drug dealer. While continuing life in the streets “Tony, by contrast, was desperately trying to give his little brother information he thought he needed” (27) to avoid affiliation with the crack epidemic. Wes interprets his brother’s words as hypocritical and hollow while admiring the respect his brother has gained. In spite of the warnings Tony gives to Wes to heed the drug game, he molds the masculinity of Wes by teaching him about respect. Tony tells Wes, “If someone disrespects you. you send a message so fierce that they won’t have the chance to do it again” (33). Wes interprets that being a man to Tony means being able to kill, to hone respect through intimidation and violence while acting outwardly tough and showing no fear. This attitude is used by Wes as a “tough facade [that] is just a way to hide a deeper pain or depression that [Wes himself doesn’t] know how to deal with . . .[a] bottomless chasm of insecurity and self-doubt that gnaws at [his conscience]” (28).

The socioeconomic status of the imprisoned Wes Moore is another factor that determines his definition of masculinity. This status corresponds with Wes’ masculine understanding of respect; Wes realizes that violence alone is not enough to build up a reputation in the fierce streets of Baltimore, so he begins life as a cocaine dealer. Wes became a dealer because he “knew for sure how powerful drugs could be . . . [he] felt a strange sense of having passed a test, graduated to a new level of maturity” (62) by working his environment to his favor. In a sense, becoming a man for Wes meant that rather than breaching the boundaries the government attached to a person of his social class, he would turn the tables on his own situation and embrace them.

While operating in criminal activity, the imprisoned Wes understands that his masculinity is less likely to be challenged if he is able to command leadership. Wes effectively “had his entire operation organized with the precision of a military unit or a division of Fortune 500 company” (110-111). With this kind of power, Wes begins to realize that those who control power also control money. Wes knew that masculinity meant taking risks, “but taking risks [was] at the heart of the drug enterprise, and scared money didn’t make money” (113). Being a man to Wes also meant being able to recognize the enemies that labeled him a product of their expectations; more specifically, the police. For Wes “getting arrested was starting to feel routine. [He] wasn’t shocked or afraid anymore, just annoyed” (114). Rather than shift his interests from dispensing drugs throughout West Baltimore or find an outlet of hope to invest in, Wes criticizes the idea of harboring false hope merely to be forced back into the same situation when his own individual efforts fail to succeed. This part of Wes’ masculinity is displayed aggressively towards religious faith when Wes himself exclaims, “If [God] does exist, He sure doesn’t spend any time in West Baltimore” (140).

In contrast, the author Wes Moore interprets masculinity as an attitude that works against the acceptance of a social class, while keeping faith and providing hope for those who have little. Wes realizes that his environment makes him “accountable to people other than [himself], [and that his] actions mattered to people other than [himself]” (66). Wes maintains this viewpoint by hanging on the morals presented to him by his headstrong mother and late father, while also learning about the decay of urban civilization through his own observations. While walking through the Bronx with his friend Justin, Wes recognizes that a “panhandler on the block . . . wasn’t just an object of ridicule, but an unsettling omen” (51) of the state of his environment. Wes convinces himself that the unforgiving environment is part of a plan to help prove his masculinity by escaping the temptations of violence and drugs, but returns to give back to the family and community which made the Bronx his home. Most of all, Wes “wanted nothing more than to make [his mother] proud . . . deathly fearful of disappointing her, but too prideful” (82) to show his emotion. Unfortunately, there were more holes in the logic of trying to escape a socioeconomic label than there were in accepting it, but for the author Wes Moore, education held the key.

The author Wes Moore begins to understand that success, whether it is fiscally or publicly, is more than half the equation of being a man. Education as a means to obtain success was an option that was not even remotely considered by Wes in his youth. Wes’ mother, recognizing her son’s slipping grades and inconsistent motivation, decides to enroll her son in a prestigious military school. Wes’ change in environment is vital to his perception of masculinity because military school introduced him to “a different psychological environment, where [his] normal expectations were inverted, where leadership was honored and class clowns were ostracized” (96-97). The psychological alteration of Wes’ environment effectively instills in him the expectations of being a man are achieved not only through a solid educational process, but an unrelenting patience and discipline inclined to make use of the knowledge obtained through schooling. Throughout the course of his education, Wes also understands that masculinity means to use his education to set goals for himself. Wes’ goal becomes clear, he “wanted to stay at Valley Forge and attend its junior college, which would allow [him] to go through the early commissioning process, receive [his] associate’s degree, and become a second lieutenant in the Army” (133).

The prisoner Wes Moore takes a different approach in his masculine viewpoint towards education. For example, Wes views education much like the way he views the religion; he was not “excelling in the classroom, and his disenchantment with school was beginning to wear on him” (58). For Wes, school becomes nothing more than a rationalized way to keep him off the streets, even though the only opportunity Wes himself ever sought after was provided by the streets themselves. Wes felt that being a man meant being a disciple of hood culture, besides that, “He always felt he was smarter than the other kids in class and that the work just didn’t hold his interest” (30). While the author Wes Moore was effectively introduced to a scholastic environment, the prisoner Wes Moore was effectively seeking a way out of his own. There was no form of success school could offer Wes that the streets could not provide quicker.

The author Wes Moore and the prisoner Wes Moore each hold masculinity perspectives based on the influences within their respective social and economic environments. While the author’s viewpoint of masculinity steadily ascended him on a path to a successful future, the prisoner Wes Moore’s perspective ultimately granted him a life sentence. Despite growing up in similar situations, the subtle differences between the same social and economic factors created two remarkably different paths to becoming a man. The idea of “being a man” is represented by each Wes at different ends of the same spectrum, compiled by positive and negative influences. Masculinity in the terms of how the individuals viewed themselves as men is ultimately what sealed two people of the same name and background to two different fates.

Works Cited

Moore, Wes. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2010. Print.