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Death of his father -- The death will shape how Author Wes sees the world and is one the biggest factors of the outcome of his life.

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Moved into Grandparents house in the Bronx and out of the Baltimore -- Author Wes mother, Joy, tries her hardest to keep her son on the right path and moving to their grandparents house is one of the many choices she makes to do so.

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The struggle to fit into white schooling and fitting in with the neighborhood -- Wes continuously fights the battle of fitting into two different friend groups and it is making his life much harder.

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Moore becomes increasingly involved with the street life, which leads to him spray painting and getting arrested. At that moment he has a moment of fear and realization.
“I was terrified. I had no idea what was next. A thought raced through my head–my mother was going to have to pick me up from jail…I swore I would never get caught in a situation like that again (82+84).”

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Crying in the woods right outside of Valley Forge -- Wes is sent to military school by his mother in hopes to set him on the right path. Wes does not want to be there and becomes lost mentally and physically.

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Thriving at Valley Forge -- Wes has bought into Valley Forge and is beginning to see the rewards as well as stepping back onto to the right moral track.

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Wes jumping out the plane -- The skydiving out of the plane was symbolized as a leap of faith, Wes has taken many of these leaps now and the rewards are extremely beneficial for him.

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Embarking on the journey of becoming a Xhosa man -- Wes has finally grown and learned what it takes to become a man and not a young boy.
“They would return to their homes as heroes…. They would wear all white for the month after returning, symbolizing that a boy had left but a man had returned.”

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Meeting his father -- As Other Wes finally meets his father, just like Author Wes, it shapes all the decisions that Wes will make along his life because of the emptiness he has for a role model.

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Wes brings a knife and tries to hurt another kid because of a fight during football -- This foreshadows the long lasting aggression Wes will have and eventually leads to his arrest of murder.

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Wes finds his mothers marijuana stash in the closet -- Even though Mary hopes Wes will not be like his older brother and be on the right track, she uses drugs and once Wes finds them, it pushes him even more to be like his older brother
“As Wes rummaged through the closet… he came across a small see-through bad packed with a green substance (59).”

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Mary finds the stash of drugs under Wes's bed -- Wes has fell right into his older brother's footsteps and joined the drug business which hurts Mary so much

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Getting arrested for the shooting at Ray--
Wes was taken out of his home and arrested for attempting to murder Ray, a man who showed up and assaulted Wes, and it broke Mary into tears.
“He was escorted downstairs by three police officers, led to the back of their car, and shoved in (106)

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Wes was arrested for high level drug dealing -- Wes had become the head of a drug dealing group and was making solid money, although once tricked into selling a police officer crack, Wes was arrested again.

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Building the house for his youngest daughter -- Once Wes is realized from prison and tries to find the right back again, Wes begins to build a tiny house for his daughter to give a sense of protection to her that he never had.

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Getting sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole -- After a long man hunt, Wes was arrested for robbing a jewelry store and the murder of a police officer. Wes was derailed from the good moral track and fell back into his normal ways, throwing away the last second chance he would ever get.
“‘On the charge of first-degree murder, the jury finds the defendant…. guilty.’ Wes stood quietly, his face set, as the foreman read out ten other charges, all with the same verdict.”