Summer Fowler Contemporary Literacy

       Music is the sounds that bring us comfort, and joy or help us express what we can not say. For Wes Moore, in The Other Wes Moore, hip-hop music became an influential and helpful resource. Hip-hop was up and coming, and for a boy from the inner city of Baltimore, it was very influential. Wes loved that hip-hop was about the world around him, and how much he could relate to it. Wes also told his mother he was a DJ when he started selling drugs. Although it was a lie, Wes admired the DJs in his area. He admired their money and their way of life. For Wes, hip-hop music was a very important part of his life.      Music is also an extremely important part of my life. I feel that it calms me and helps me reflect on my day or my life. On the train to class every morning, helps me set the mood. Sometimes I'll put on Rihanna or Doja Cat (despite her controversy) to give me energy and hype me up for the day. However, most days I play some sort of indie r...

The book The Other Wes Moore, written by Wes Moore, features many important relationships. These relationships allow us to gain insight into characters as well as learn lessons. One important relationship in the book is between Tony and the other Wes Moore. These two are brothers with a large age gap and different fathers. Their relationship is strong, as Tony teaches Wes how to stay safe in their uncertain neighborhood. However Tony also tries to teach Wes to stay away from the same mistakes Tony has made. Tony is in the drug game in Baltimore, he spends his days prowling the streets and selling drugs to people. This gives him a lot of money and resources, which Wes enveys. However because this situation is unsafe and sketchy, Tony really tries to keep Wes away from it. Wes understands that the drug game is not something you want to be involved in, but he also wants to have the resources and street credit the game gives. He ultimately ends up getting involved. This is despite Tony...

Expectations or environment? Which makes us who we are? This is one of the prevailing questions in the book,  The Other Wes Moore,  written by Wes Moore. This book is about two men from the same neighborhood with very similar pasts who have grown up to have drastically different futures. The author, Wes Moore is an accomplished politician and Rhode Scholar, in contrast, the other Wes Moore is spending his life in jail without parole due to a bank robbery gone wrong. These men had very similar environments as they grew up in the same neighborhood in Baltimore. However, the expectations placed on these men were drastically different.  The environment that one is born into is a very important factor in one's future, things like money and where you live are all conditions that affect your environment. However, we also have the power to change our environment. It is by no means easy but we can move and work hard. The environment we are born into is just one of the environments...