Influential Factors in the Book 'The Other Wes Moore'

 Many places are capable of influencing any American author’s piece of literature. Setting is a huge factor for many authors. The place where the writing happens is always important. Many authors write about where they grew up and how it impacted them as a person. Others write about how the setting helped them with their writing. Setting is a huge piece of literature for a lot of authors, not just Americans. The characters in The Other Wes Moore are influenced by their lack of father figures, their struggle for education, and drug violence.

One’s lack of having a father figure is a major influence on an author’s writing. In The Other Wes Moore, Wes says, “Your father wasn’t there because he couldn’t be, my father wasn’t there because he chose not to be. We’re going to mourn their absence in different ways”. This quote explains how Other Wes’s father chose not to be in his life so he ended up going down the wrong road, making bad decisions. Author Wes’s father wasn’t absent by choice, but this also had a negative effect on him. But this isn’t the only important factor when it comes to setting affecting literature.

The struggle to get an education is a major influence on an author’s writing. In The Other Wes Moore, “Mary realized the letter effectively closed the door on her college aspirations. She had already completed sixteen hours of college credits and would get no closer towards graduation”. As the quote shows, it’s difficult for one person in a financially unstable position to get a college education. It’s easy to understand that not everyone from that neighborhood is able to get that education as well. This is an important factor when it comes to setting affecting literature, but there’s more.

One of the other major influences on an author’s writing is drug violence. In The Other Wes Moore, Wes states that, “First, Tony got shot in the chest during a botched drug deal. It was the first of the three times he would feel the searing heat of a bullet enter his body”. This explains that in that neighborhood, at that young age, dealing drugs and getting shot isn’t really surprising at all. That environment they grew up in or lived in resulted in them getting into drugs and violence. These are all important factors when it comes to setting affecting literature

In conclusion, the characters in The Other Wes Moore are influenced by their lack of father figures, their struggle for education, and drug violence. A father can choose not to be in a child’s life or they might be absent for a specific reason. Either way this can negatively impact the child. Education is hard to get if you don’t have the financial qualifications for it. Everyday, young men and women are exposed to drug violence and its getting more and more common.