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Nikki gets punched by Wes, his mother getting angry about this violence created by Wes.

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Mary Moore, Wes's mother, tells Wes about her letter denying her admission to Johns Hopkins as the budget for Pell Grants was being slashed. Wes volunteers to get a job for his mother after hearing this. This letter was the beginning of where money became tight, and where Wes's craving for a job will eventually expose him to the drug underworld of Baltimore.

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"His (Wes's father) body was sprawled and writhing at the foot of the stairs. Hardly any sounds came from his mouth. I heard another crash, this one from the kitchen... I looked back p to my father and saw him gasping for air... I stared at him, looking but doing nothing"(Moore 13).

- Wes witnesses his father dying.

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"He was running through the living room when he saw someone he had never seen before. A man sat on the couch leaning precariously to the side, his right elbow supporting his body and his head nearly flat against his shoulder. The strong smell of whiskey wafted from his clothes and his pores...'Wes, meet your father'"(Moore 15).

- Wes met his father for the first time, seeing him drunk on the couch.

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Wes moving to New York to live with his grandparents.

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Wes's attempt at stabbing a boy who punched him in the face while playing football. Wes got arrested because of this attempt at violence, along with his best friend Woody. This event was spawned because of Tony's words "Send a message."

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"The basketball court is a strange patch of neutral ground, a meeting place for every element of a neighborhood's cohort of young men"(Moore 44).

- Wes travels to the basketball court of the Bronx, exposing him to new kids in his neighborhood.

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"The first was from Pennsylvania Avenue to Cherry Hill to get away from Wes's father. The move from Cherry Hill to Northwood was to get away from Cherry Hill"(Moore 28).

- Wes travels from neighborhood to neighborhood, impacting him as a person because he is living in places of bad environment and not living in a place long enough to create relationships with friends.

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Wes being enrolled into a Riverdale, a private school. This forces Wes to live in two worlds in the form of the Bronx and Riverdale, as he is an outsider in both worlds.

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"Second, Wes failed the sixth grade at 'Chicken Pen' and had to repeat it. Baltimore City had a 70 percent dropout rate at the the time"(Moore 57).

- Wes fails school because of his lack of attention and motivation.

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Uncle Howard setting up a baseball game with Wes's friends from Riverdale and from the Bronx. However, this game did not go well, as a huge brawl started between the Bronx boys and the Riverdale boys.

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Wes being recruited in the drug game, as he was desperate for money and wanted to be like Tony, who was his brother and a drug dealer.

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Wes smoking weed, showing his total involvement in the drug world and loving the feeling of getting caught up in drugs.

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Wes skipping classes to hang out with his friends and his grades going down as a consequence. This created rising tension between Wes's relationship with his mother.

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Wes getting beat up by Tony because of his realization that Wes is in the drug game and he has failed as a brother.

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Wes tagging his nickname and getting almost arrested with Shea, the cop letting them go because he felt bad about kids their age getting arrested.

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Mary discovering Wes's drug stash under his bed and discarding it in the toliet. This makes Wes angry and creates a more distant relationship with his mother.

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Wes getting shipped off to military school. Wes feels sour toward his mother since he felt that she betrayed him by sending him away from his home and friends.

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Wes and Alicia meeting each other, having an intimate relationship until Alicia announces she is pregnant.

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Wes trying to escape military school, but falling into a trap by the members of his chain of command, being sent to Commander Batt's office. This capture helped Wes get introduce to a new role model in Cadet Captain Ty Hill.

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Wes seeing his father lying drunk at his aunt's house, his father not knowing who he is.

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Wes getting into a fight with Ray, chasing him through the neighborhood and shooting him, Wes getting arrested for attempted murder and sent to Juvenile Detention.

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"My mouth was aching. I was beside myself with anger - and still confused. And embarrassed. Embarrassed to be called a n----- and having my tooth broken, I'd decided to fall back to campus"(Moore 121).

- Wes has been feeling very comfortable in military school, as he is now a cadet.
- However, Wes got streaked by a couple of drunk kids while walking to town, calling Wes and his friend racial slurs.
- In consequence, this forced Wes to retreat back to school, which he feels ashamed for.

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Wes got arrested by cops and went to jail again for illegal drug sale.

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Wes Moore jumping off the plane to complete his para trooping training in order to become second-lieutenant. This ironically symbolizes his ascent into manhood and his newfound career.

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Wes joining the Job Corps with Levy and eventually getting his GED, pursing a career in carpentering. However, Wes's money situation has been tight ever since returning home, and so he falls back to the world of drugs and crime.

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Wes internships with Mayor Schmoke, the mayor of Balitmore.

- Wes went to Johns Hopkins during this time.
- The Mayor suggested to do the Rhodes Scholarship, which Wes accomplished doing.

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Sargent Prothero is murdered in an armed robbery and other Wes and Tony are the suspects. The two are arrested and Tony pleads guilty but Wes pleads innocent and goes to trial. He is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. He uses this as an opportunity to think about his future.

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"I learned about the music of the apartheid era and how it was the musicians and artists, even more than the politicians and activists, who informed the world about the country's injustices"(Moore 167).

- Wes travels to Cape Town to experience the culture of Africa for 6 months.
- He creates bonds and relationships between his new "brother" Zinze, learning about the language of his people.
- Although he is thousands of miles away from home, he realizes that the challenges he faced as a young child are similar everywhere in the world, saying how the young men and women are the human race's future.