Chapter 1

      

     One theme that was in chapter 1 of "The Other Wes Moore", was that single mothers must be the role models that their sons look up to you once their fathers are no longer around.

1) "Bernard hadn't found a steady job. He spent most of his time searching for himself at the bottom of liquor bottles."

    Bernard is the second Wes Moore's father. He is not a good influence on Wes, but that wouldn't matter much because he was never around to take care of him. If there was any hope of Wes becoming a well mannered person, it would have to come from his mother's teachings. She took care of him when his father didn't.

2) "'Get up to your damn room. I told you, don't you ever put your hands on a woman!'"

    This is an example of one of the lessons that the first Wes Moore's mother enforced strictly. Because Wes's father died when he was very young, his mother, Joy, had to enforce rules that she saw fit to mold Wes into a decent man.

3) "I tried to copy his walk, his expressions. I was his main man. He was my protector."

    This quote is from the perspective of Wes, talking about his father. Unlike Bernard, this Wes' father was a decent man who loved Joy and his family. Before he died, Wes would imitate him for fun. What Wes didn't realize was that subliminally, his father was teaching him who to be when he grows older. With his main role model now dead, West must rely on the little that he's learned from his father to understand the behavior in which his mother wants him to behave. 

 

Another theme that's in this chapter of "The Other Wes Moore" is that education is the key to getting where you want to be in life. 

 

4) “Her heart jumped when she received her acceptance letter. It was a golden ticket to another world—but also to the dizzying idea that the life she wanted, that she dreamed about, might actually happen for her.”

    This is a quote about Mandy Moore. She is the mother of the other Wes Moore. Education is her one ticket to the world she wants to be a part of. She grew up poor, so school is the only way she could make her way up in the world to make money that will give herself and her son a fighting chance to support themselves. 

5) “But with that grant now eliminated, it wouldn’t be enough. The next day she called Johns Hopkins and let them know she was dropping out. That part-time job at Bayview would become permanent.”

    Because Mandy's Grant got terminated, she was no longer able to complete school. She was at still point in the world because her education couldn't continue.