The Other Wes Moore: Second Chances

Depending on past consequences and a person’s willingness to improve, most people deserve the opportunity of another chance.

Second chances depend on one’s actions and the consequences of those actions. In some cases, people do not deserve multiple chances due to their previous actions. For example, in The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, the other Wes is given chance after chance by his mother to stop getting into trouble, and when he goes to military school, he does. However, when he gets out, he decides to go back to a life of crime and ends up incarcerated. The other Wes did not really deserve the shots he got, even though he tried to improve by going to military school. Second chances are also given frequently in the book We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. In Part One of We Were Liars, Cadence goes to Europe with her dad and misses two summers with the liars due to her accident. She emails them almost every day and never gets a response. She explains in the book that Gat never reached out to her and was not there when the accident occurred. Later, when Cady goes back to the island, she is upset with the liars, especially Gat. “What would you say if I asked you to start over?”(Lockhart 87). Gat wants another chance and by asking for one he shows a willingness to repair things with Cady. However, he left her and never responded to her.

This hurts her deeply. Like the other Wes, Gat did not really deserve a second chance either.

Second chances also depend on one’s attitude about improvement and change. If a person get the opportunity to grow and earn someone’s trust back, they should take it and be willing to make up for their actions. By doing so, they prove their willingness and began to earn the trust they previously lost. This applies to the liars. When they did not to respond to Cadence, she came back to the island and did forgive them because they all felt bad for what had happened.

Second chances are all about opportunity and forgiveness. If one gives another said opportunity, they are implying that they forgive them. Second chances go both ways. The person giving the chance should also have the best attitude. By offering another opportunity, they need to forgive and forget. This can be applied to a current situation in my life. I have two family members who are feuding based on past issues. They have given each other chance after chance, but cannot actually forgive or forget.

Works Cited

1. Lockhart, E. We Were Liars. Delacorte Press, 2014.
2. Moore, Wes. The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. Spiegel & Grau, 2011.