Miles Moschetti > Recent Status Updates

Now that I have finished the other Wes Moore, I have become way more grateful for my support system. Both of my parents would do almost anything for me, and now I truly value how important that is. In the book, one of the Wes's clearly had a way better relationship with his family, and that ended up benefiting him. While the other Wes had almost no support, he ended up in jail.

When Mayor Schmoke is talking about the Rhode Island Scholorship to Wes, he sees Wes a super hard-working person and that he deserves that. However, Wes always seems to undervalue himself and wonder if he really deserves it. I wonder if he will ever believe that he actually deserves something, and I think he always feels like an underdog because of where he is from and how his past isn't super pretty.

Wes and Tony spent 12 days running from the police. That is so incredibly hard by itself, and they also planned out a kind of successful robbery of a jewelry store. This makes me think Wes was way smarter than people gave him credit for, and if he had ended up making some different choices, I think he could have ended up being a very successful smart person and he was way smarter than people gave him credit for.

I found it pretty ironic that Wes is running through the fields back to the base where he feels safe after he was attacked, when only a few years earlier, he ran into those fields, running away from the place where he now feels safe. It seems like it was put in the book as a pretty full-circle moment that shows how much he has progressed over the course of the book so far and how much he has changed.

After Wes got released from prison for 6 months after shooting at Ray. The author did a great job making it seem like that was going to put him back on track, and I believed it for a little while. Not even a page later, he decides to get back into his drug business and puts himself at risk for getting in trouble. I wonder if what separates the two Wes’s is what they do with their opportunities to get out of trouble.

When the sergeant gives Wes the map for him to leave, it seems too good to be true. I have a feeling that the map will just lead him to the middle of nowhere, and once he gets there, it will mess with him, really get him, and finally motivate him to change. Once he changes, I think his life will turn around, and he will start trying in school and become motivated to be better for his family.

Both of them seem to be letting their grades slip, so I wonder how one ends up being extraordinarily smart. I wonder what led him to start trying in school and become very successful. My guess is his family was super disappointed in him, and that motivated him to try. I also think that his mom might start being way more strict with him, making sure that Wes, the author, is always doing his best in school.

Wes Moore, the author, seems to have a much better home life than the other Wes. I wonder if this plays into how one of them becomes way more successful. Does having a better home life set you up for success? The author talks a lot about how he and his sisters had a good relationship and were looking out for each other. The other Wes only really talks about his brother when his brother does something wrong.

Throughout the first part of this book, both Wes's seem to have had a rough childhood. They both seem to grow up in rough areas, not necessarily the best people, or have the best people around them. So I wonder how their paths end up being so different. I wonder if it does come down to their home life and how their family ends up treating them, and the other influences they have in their life.

Now that I have finished the book, I have really realized the amount that Dex has evolved. In the beginning of the book, when Dex first meets Mosscap, Dex has a lot of of genrational guilt about what happened to the robots. Dex feels horrible about how they were treated and didn't want to make Mosscap do any sort of work. But by the time we get to the end of the book, Dex has Mosscap help them with a lot.

When Mosscap talks about how you are more than what you are made out of and what you look like. This reminds me a lot about TRF because they talk a lot about in that book that you are more than what you look like and how you shouldn't judge others by what they look like. SOme one may look scary, but once you get to know them that could become your best friend. So don't judge a book by its cover.

It really amazes me how sophisticated the robots are. They have evolved to know that they must create more robots to keep their society running. It is just mind-blowing to me that they have figured out all these things about themselves to survive. I wonder if this is put into the book to teach us maybe the lesson that maybe we don't want to create these AI powered machinces becasue they will become so smart.

So far in the first section of this book, it seems like Dex is struggling to find who they really are and what they really want to do. Now that Mosscap has come along, it makes me wonder if Mosscap is going to help Dex figure themselves out. Maybe Mosscap will help Dex really find who they want to be and what they want to do for the rest of their life, because it seems like Dex keeps changing what they are doing.

I wonder if Dex will ever truly be satisfied because, so far, no matter what they are doing, after a year or two, they want to do something different or go off plan. I think they will be looking for this sense of purpose that they will never want to leave behind until they meet the robots. Then, once they meet the robots, the robots will help them learn something new about themselves.

When Dex talks about their home, they seem to have a negative tone about it. When they first talk about it, the book says that they start to grimace. This implies to me that in the past, they had a bad relationship with their family. This makes me wonder if that's why they chose to go to Little Creek instead of Haydale. It could be that they didn't want to be reminded of bad experiences that happened in Haydale.

If Erica killed herself, I think that would truly send Changez into a downward spiral if he is not already in one. Also, if Erica died, I think that would symbolize Changez's American dream coming to an end and him realizing that there is no future for him in the U.S. or at Underwood Sampson. It seems like the names the author chooses could have double meanings.

On p. 148, Changez says, " I lacked a stable core." This refers to the bats from earlier and how they are mammals that can fly; they are stuck in between. Changez feels the same way; he feels lost between being an "American" and being proud of being Pakistani. Erica grounded him in his Pakistani roots, but now that their relationship is over, it has put him into a spiral, and he can't get out of it.

I feel bad for Changez because he keeps having to change who he is. First at Princeton, he felt he had to act rich to fit in. Then, after 9-11, everyone was telling him to shave his beard so no one would make assumptions about him. Finally, he is always trying to change who he is for Erica, so that she will like him more. I think this is why the author made his name Changez, because he always has to change.

The author chose the name Erica for a very specific reason, and I think that it is because if you add am- before it, it turns into America. Changez's relationship with the two are very similar because Changez has lived in the U.S. for 4 yrs, but still barley feel apart of it and Erica likes him but still can't move on from Chris. So, in both scenarios, Changez doesn't feel complertely apart of either.

When Changz first got back to America, his life was clearly very hard. A lot of people were being stereotypical and racist towards him and others just because of how they looked, which is totally unfair and very sad to think about. I think all those unnecessary actions are what eventually cause him to leave after just eight months and move back home.

On p. 70, yet again, Jim talks about how great Changez is at his job. He calls him a shark because of how relentless he is. But I think Changez is changing, I think he is becoming more fierce and is always trying to get what he wants and moving away from his old-charm, respectful self. I think later on, Erica might say that she doesn't like him anymore because he is changing, and she loved his old-charm ways.

Jim seems to see himself a lot in Changez. He goes out of his way to help Changez and let him know how he's doing. I think he sees himself in Changez because they have similar backgrounds, they both come from hardworking families. If I worked at a place where someone looked after me. I wouldn't want to leave, but he says he only lived in New York for 8 months. So I wonder why he left.

The author, Mohsn Hamid, really has me hooked because on p.30, Changez says that he only stayed in New York for 8 months. But later on, he says he loved how inclusive New York felt and how he felt like a New Yorker the second he moved there. So, I wonder why he left so soon. Did something happen that changed his mind? I am really hooked by this and can't stop thinking about why.

Through my first chapter of the book, one thing that has really stuck out to me is how attentive Changez is. In a couple of different scenarios, it is really obvious, one being the things he notices about the American at the cafe, how he held himself and where he sat are just two examples. Also, he made a bunch of observations about the person who interviewed him that not all people would make.

I found it really interesting how, yet again, the Grandfather refers to Frank as "his son" when he barges into Wes's house. Not only is he saying it right in front of Wes, but it also really shows that, in his eyes, Frank can do no wrong. Hearing him say those words must really make Wes feel bad about himself, because no matter what he does, someone will always hate him, and that person might be his dad.

The author, Larry Watson, does a brilliant job showing Davey's growth throughout the book. At the beginning, he is described as a little innocent boy who sees everything in black and white, right and wrong. However, later on in the book, he starts to realize some things that might not be so clearly cut. Also, he is maturing into a more adult-like role, for example, when he tries to protect the house with his mom.

On p. 105, when Wes talks about repainting the house, I think he is using it as an analogy for restarting. He is using it because he thinks that if he finally puts Frank on trial and he gets convicted, then Davey and his family might have to restart because everyone in the town loved Frank, and then they will end up hating Wes for ruining Frank's life. So, then they might have to move away and restart in a new town.

It says on p. 77 that Doris was very uncomfortable in the presence of David and his family. This makes me wonder if she saw something that she wasn't supposed to or that she didn't want to see. I think she saw Frank come back to the house before Davis and his family, and maybe did something to cause Marie to die. Maybe he switched out her meds to poison her because he was worried that he was going to get caught.

On p.74, it says, " I steadied the sights on his head..." That quote is describing David as the complete opposite compared to the beginning of the book. In the beginning, he was described as a little innocent boy, but that quote describes him as much more grown-up. If he pulls that trigger, then he commits murder in front of a sheriff. That really shows the growth that David has gone through so far.