This is an important lesson early on in Wes's life, one he will remember due to the response given by his mother. The fear of the moment had stuck with him, but the importance of the lesson had reached his head. It leads to a life where he knows better what to do and what not to do.

This part of the story is just the start of how (incarcerated) Wes is told to do so many things but it shown people doing otherwise. This way, he is still influenced by their actions, as actions speak louder than words do.

This shows that moore wasn't realizing that his mother was going to send him, but even though it seemed like a negative at the time, its his mother doing what she thinks will best help moore in his future and in his life, and eventually she is shown to be correct

This quote, while Wes's father is dying, Wes is talking about how it feels to just stand there as your father loses his life. He describes everything as vanishing and getting blurry, like the world around him seemed to pause for this moment, except for him, it really did.

This shows that Tony's influence on Wes was really strong, and that Wes was taking great strides to follow the advice he was given from Tony. The strong influence that Tony had would turn Wes's future down the path of drug dealing, as Tony had done.

This shows that now his mother knows what path he's taking, and now that the word is out, it sort of solidifies the fact that he is walking this path in life. It also means his mother now knows that he may have been putting his home in danger by keeping the drugs in his mothers house.

This lead to his mother signing him into military school, to keep him away from all of the dangerous and often criminal activity that had begun to surround his home. It’s something that Author Wes had gotten the chance to avoid, while the other Wes had had no other options

This further shows the decision to send Wes off to the military academy as being the best decision for his future, as he became more into things like reading and educational things, avoiding the life of crime and drugs that unfortunately surrounded his home city and the area he grew up in. The difference in environment prevented the negative influence from reaching Wes, effectively causing him to avoid it altogether.

This quote acts as almost a defeat on Wes’s end, as his return to a life containing crime and drugs meant his arrest and life sentence, so that he can no longer be the way he was before.

“He stayed at job corps center so he could provide a better life for his kids” (Moore 144).

Wes tries to make a living outside of the streets, not doing anything that could be considered criminal activity and showimg that he really honestly cares for the children he has and wants to raise the, right. He keeps working to provide for these kids and their mothers, even if it’s difficult with the amount of money he makes.

This is where incarcerated Wes gives up on what he has been working on for months in job corps because he realizes that what he is doing wont give him as much money as he thought in a fast way so he ended up falling back to the habits of using drugs because drugs give you money fast and easy money. He also want to take care of his family and with everyone nagging him about money he lose his patience and goes the easy way.