Discovering Wes Moore Themes

Discovering Wes Moore probes the often-blurry line between choice and chance, and the roles they each play in shaping one’s destiny. At both the beginning and the end of the book, Wes, the memoir’s author, observes that “[t]he chilling truth is that [the other Wes Moore’s] story could have been mine, and the tragedy is that my story could have been his.” Both men were born around the same time in a…

Throughout Discovering Wes Moore, Wes celebrates the mentors he was lucky enough to find throughout his life. When Wes was just three years old, his father Westley died, leaving a void in his life. His mother Joy, however, tirelessly fought for him and believed in him, even when he was ungrateful for her support and showed little ambition. At military school, Wes met several cadets and veterans in the faculty who became the…

Discovering Wes Moore follows the general outline of a classic coming-of-age narrative, but Wes Moore’s conclusions about his own coming of age undercut a straightforward, linear understanding of his progression. Wes grows up in a neighborhood with a high crime rate, and he gets into considerable trouble as a youth, but he turns his life around in military school and embarks on a path of impressive academic and professional achievement. Yet while military school…