The Other Wes Moore and All American Boys: The World’s Obsession with Choices

Choices can change many things around a person from friends to the environment one life in. Throughout The Other Wes Moore: One Name Two Tales, the choices the other Wes made affected his attitude in the situations he was established in. This led to one ending up in prison while the other became a Rhodes Scholar. In All American Boys, Rashad turned up beaten after a run to Jerry’s convenience store where he had been accused of stealing. This was because of how he had been perceived by the officer. Many factors can play a role in how a person transpires, but one circumstance, in particular, determines everything: choices; choices are highly impactful on people’s lives and the people around them.

In The Other Wes Moore, Wes had decided to help his friend Shea tag a wall but swiftly found themselves caught up with the police. During the mishap, the policeman decided to allow to leave Wes and Shea go after saying “You kids are way too young to be in this situation. But you know what, I see kids like you here every day. If you do not get smart, I am certain I will see you here again”. The choice the policeman made to let the boys go based on the way he perceived them had a huge impact on Wes. This crime would not have a further impact later in his life and kept his mom from discovering that he was already involved in crime.

When the other Wes walked his side chick Alicia to the door, she had gotten into a fallout with him and resulting in Wes taking blows to the face along with shots being fired. Subsequently, sensing danger, Wes had made the choice that would make him face charges; attempted murder. After the incident, Wes’s doors started to close. He was unable to find a job with a criminal record and no high school diploma all because he perceived ray as a way to make a statement.

In All American boys, perception and choices seem to go hand and hand throughout the book as well. For example, Rashad was beaten after being perceived by the cop as a criminal who was trying to steal after trying to help an old woman who fell up. All leads to the cop to choosing to arrest Rashad. During this event, Rashad tells the cop “I was just trying to get my phone out of my bag when she fell over me”. With the cop’s perception of Rashad being a thug, he ended up receiving a brutal beating and arrest. During the book, the story seems to closely follow the way Quinn acts and what he chooses to do very closely. For instance, Quinn had originally told Guzzo that he would defend Paul, but after watching the video his perception seemed to change.

Some might argue that perception and choices never go hand and hand due to the fact that choices are made based on how one was raised. That opinion is greatly flawed. During school, many students decided to be troublesome by: talking back to the teacher, leaving class early, and disrupting the learning environment. Even though they were not raised this way they still make the choice to be bothersome. After the construction of my new playground at my elementary school, where just two days after having the playground, the slide was burned and the main set vandalized. After the police caught the vandalizes, they told police that they knew it was wrong to vandalize the slide but made the choice to do it anyways, further proving that choices affect everything.

Choices are often seen as something with a little impact that often gets overlooked. Choices impact all things from a microscopic scale to something massive. Throughout both of the books, choices affected both of Wes and Rashaad in ways that either changed things around them or in themselves. Many factors can play a role in how a person transpires, but one circumstance, in particular, determines everything: choices; choices are highly impactful on people’s lives and the people around them.

Works Cited

1. Moore, Wes. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. Spiegel & Grau Trade Paperbacks, 2011.
2. Reynolds, Jason, and Brendan Kiely. All American Boys. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, 2015.