Title Justification #3: Paths Taken and Expectations Fulfilled

Title Justification #3: Paths Taken and Expectations Fulfilled

In The Other Wes Moore, the reader watches the growth of both of the Wes' and how their choices affect their success. Because of this bond created between the reader and the character, the reader is automatically more connected to the characters. The book is divided into three parts that tell the stories of how the Wes Moore's started out very similar but soon split into different paths. The third part is called "Paths Taken and Expectations Fulfilled" which mainly shows how the choices that each Wes has affected the way that they will live their adult lives. The title "Paths Taken and Expectations Fulfilled" is appropriate for the author's purpose because it illustrates his feelings about how societal expectations shaped the way the Moore's thought and how this would affect their lives.

The title "Paths Taken and Expectations Fulfilled" emphasizes the effect that life choices and outside factors have on the life paths of the two Moores.  In the last section of the book, the author Wes is studying abroad in South Africa. He uses his experience in South Africa to teach himself and the readers valuable lessons regarding growing up and this will give him the drive and determination needed to drive himself even farther away from the hole he came from. The author later says, "Despite entering the school with lower scores than the average student, I would walk across the stage as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate who was also the first Rhodes Scholar in thirteen years at Johns Hopkins and the first African-American Rhodes Scholar in school history." This quote shows that even though there were countless factors against Wes, he overcame all and did something he or his mother would have never even dreamed of earlier when he was still the immature Wes. Wes is a figure that could be put into the books because of the mountain he climbed and that is something to write home about for his mother who has had hope for him his whole life.  Contrary to Wes, the other Wes's story ends with him being sentenced to life in prison. This depletes the last of the hope that anyone had for Wes to leave poverty and this devastates his whole family and especially his mother whose only goal was to make sure her children had a better life than her. Both of these situations represent the split between their lives.  This title directly represents the idea that the final section of the book is the climax. The author uses this part of the book to show how this new chapter of their lives will mark different expectations and goals for each Wes as they move forward in their careers and repentance respectively. 

By having the book spread into three parts, the author uses this to represent the growth of the two characters good or bad. Each section of the book represents a new chapter in each Wes' lives and this allows the readers to easily compare the major turning points in the lives of the Moores. This last section has showed how now there lives have changed permanently, something that has not been accounted for the last two parts of the book as the their potential outcomes were consistently changing.