The Look of Wes Moore's Father
The author’s father is a college graduate with a job as a newscaster on a popular Washington, D.C. radio station. One night he unknowingly begins manifesting symptoms of acute epiglottis which inflames and blocks the airways in the throat. The condition is fatal if not diagnosed, but easily treated if caught in time. Westley Moore drives himself to the hospital where he receives less than stellar attention: he is diagnosed with a sore throat, lack of sleep and has his mental acuity question before receiving the worst possible treatment for his actual condition. Westley Moore did not really die of his symptoms later that night, he died because of the image he presented when he entered the emergency room
“unshaven, his clothes disheveled, his name unfamiliar, his address not in an affluent area…insulted with ridiculous questions and basically told to fend for himself.”
Nihilism and Predestination in the Projects
The imagery used by the author to describe the housing project where the other Wes Moore learns how to become a criminal is one that palpably links social status to a pervasively nihilistic outlook on life and the inevitability of a life of crime for many:
“Seventeen-story monoliths…walls and floors coated with filth…dimly lit cinder-block hallways…broken-down elevators…claustrophobic, urine-scented stairways…kept in check by…gun-strapped kids and a nightmare army of drug fiends.”
The Bronx Melting Pot
Imagery is used quite effective by the author to draw a distinction between the sights and sounds of the Bronx compared to downtown Manhattan:
“a fog of food smells…beef patties and curry goat from the Jamaican spot, deep-fried dumpling and chicken wings from the Chinese take-out joint, cuchifritos from the Puerto Rican lunch counter…immigrants in…embroidered guayaberas and flowing kete and spray-painted T-shirts…the air rang with English and Spanish in every imaginable accent.”
The Smell of the Other Wes Moore's Father
The father of the other Wes Moore is Bernard. When he’s six years old, he runs into the house and where sitting on the couch the young boy sees a strange man. What he remembers is that “the strong smell of whiskey wafted from his clothes and pores.” He turns to his mother in confusion, wondering who the man is and trying to move away from not just because he felt safer with his mother, but “because the smell coming off the man was beginning to bother him.”
It is the six year old's introduction to his father.
