Wes Moore's Short Story 'The Saints And Roughnecks'

Some factors that lead the “bad” Wes Moore into the drug trade can be social immobility, national explanation of poverty, his has an older brother that is doing the same and statistics. Wes experiences social immobility throughout generations of his family. It is extremely hard for him and his mother to get out of poverty because overall the system is against them; his mother is raising her children by herself, she already had one bad child and they are african american, thus they are experiences bias from all ends of the spectrum. The national explanation of poverty states that parents and older family members teach their young about finances incorrectly and destined them for failure. When poverty is so engraved into children they want to
He was caught running away from the police and they handcuffed him and placed him in the back of the squad car. The police gave Wes and his friend a stern talking to and then released them. Which one can relate this to the short story The Saints and Roughnecks. This Wes is definitely seen as a good kid that just messed up a few times which makes one believe that he is seen as a Saint. Just like the short story Wes was not charged with his crime because he is a good kid and does not deserve punishment. When Wes’ mother got sick of his slacking off and being a bad kid she did not raise him to be she called the family together to give her money to send him to military school so they could straighten him out before he got to out of control. Lucky, Wes’ mother was able to pull this money together the other Wes was in lower poverty and could never have this opportunity to get his life straighten out. This was beneficial for Wes because was taking away from the bad influences, the poor neighborhoods and sent to a place that will discipline him better than family or school can do. The consequences was that he left his good friends and family behind, he also caused major debt to his family. When Wes left his friends he was not able to help Justin with his sick mother or Shea with getting in trouble with the cops. Good Wes has been sheltered for most of his like and sees extreme racism for the first time when his is at military school. He was walking with a friend to go get a stromboli he was called the n-word and hit in the face with a bottle. One can also say that Wes see prejudice and stereotyping the first day at school, his drill instructor screams in his face and makes him look stupid when he gives Wes the fake map out of campus. In chapter 6, good Wes takes a turn for the better, after he was called the n-word, Wes decides the better decision is to run back to campus