Contemporary Literacies Spring 2023

  What music played a special role in the other Wes Moore’s life? What role does music play in your life?      The type of music that played a special role in the other Wes Moore's life was Hip Hop, it had given him a direction and purpose in life by inspiring him to want to become a rapper. For me, punk/alt rock plays a role in my life as a sort of outlet. When I was younger and first was introduced to it, the music kind of did all the screaming and venting of my emotions for me and it has this aggressive passion behind it. It isn't just how aggressive it can be that attracts me to it, I really like when bands of this genre have more sad sounding songs in their albums, especially now as an adult. The more calm/melancholy songs are kind of the aftermath of the aggressive songs; the calm after the storm so to speak. In short, alt rock has a special place in my life for relieving certain internal struggles. Has anyone ever played a trick on you? How did that make you f...

  Have you ever made a decision that you believe could have altered your life path?      I think one of the decisions I have made in my life that I believe altered my life path was my decision to stay in my hometown for high school. I had the opportunity to transfer to another school when I had completed middle school, my grandmother said I could live with her in North Bergen to go to high school in that town, I decided against it because I did not want to leave my friends or my younger siblings. Even though it could have been a good opportunity for me, I felt the things I had built up, the few things I had in school, was too precious to me at that time. If I had gone to high school in North Bergen I'm sure my career choices and ideas would have been different, with a different circle of friends to back me up. However I could not stand the thought of being separated from my brother and sister. What advice do you give your siblings based on your mistakes in life? ...

  Are we products of our environment or products of our expectations? ____________________________________________________________________          The book  The Other Wes Moore , to summarize, is about two men with the same name, Wes Moore, and how drastically different their lives are from one another. The Wes Moore that wrote the book grew up in a wealthy neighborhood and in a good family, while the other one, the other Wes Moore, grew up in not so financially stable conditions. The other Wes Moore struggled in life: with money, education, parenting and not even trying to live but survive everyday. The author Wes Moore got a great education, and despite the troubles he faced was able to overcome them due to the resources he had available to him that the other Wes Moore did not. Once the author Wes Moore discovered his "doppelganger" and saw how differently they both lived, it made the author Wes Moore question the world around him. Why are some peop...