Chapter 7: The Land That God Forgot

Theme: Discipline

1) "He embraced the progress this nation made and the military's role in helping that change to come about." (Page 131)

This quote is said when Author Wes is realizing that his sports-oriented dreams are not realistic, and he starts to think about what he may do next. He soon realizes that the answer is right in front of him; he was going to join the military. Author Wes wanted to have the same strength that supported his nation and that kept his nation alive, which up until he arrived at Valley Forge, he did not have in his life. He started to realize that the only way to make something of himself was to step into this position of order. Before his time in military school, Author Wes thought that the way to gain power was to be "cool" and to defend himself in his neighborhood. Now, however, he sees that by being disciplined and by following a code of honor, he can achieve more than he ever dreamed of in his old Bronx life. This is a turning point for Author Wes because although he has many dreams involving sports and money for his family, he believes that a career that follows the path of the people he admires and the actions he admires is the way that he will not only become a man, but finally find something makes him feel like he had a purpose that others applauded instead of derided. This was also a time when Author Wes started to step back and look at the big picture; it was no longer just about his Bronx life or the sports that he would play. It started to become about his nation and his country, and he started to have aspirations to become part of the bigger solution. This showed his growth and maturity, and how he started to consider the growth and well-being of others instead of just fast money or defending his "hood."

2) "Powell in his pragmatic way wanted what I wanted: a fair shot. A place to develop himself. A code that would instill discipline, restrain passion, and order his steps." (Page 132)

As Author Wes was discovering the possibilities of his future, he turned his thoughts to some of his most acclaimed role models. He found these role models through literature and history, primarily introduced to him by his mother, who bought him a book about his favorite basketball stars. This transcended simple sports adulation and prompted Author Wes to seek out further opportunities to read about greatness, and subsequently follow the people he read about. In following with the theme of discipline, Author Wes' mom definitely had a strong influence on the events in his life through her quiet and subtle disciplinary actions; she followed through on her threat to send him to military school in he first place, and even then emphasized the discipline of reading, education and opening Wes' sights to new possibilities. However, other Wes' mother's household was more chaotic and may not have had the conduciveness to provide such guidance and discipline for her son, accounting for Other Wes' lack of vision and lack of overall discipline to overcome the challenges in his life. Author Wes uses Powell's idea of "developing himself" to explore the path he wanted to follow for his future instead of just thinking short term, as he had been, which is a hallmark of a lack of discipline. In this quote, Author Wes talks about wanting a code to follow to make his life follow a journey that would lead him to his goals, rather than living by an unplanned, undisciplined, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants scene of chaos. This chapter makes clear some of the major causes of the split between the two Wes Moores. Arguably, these two major causes are the discipline of one's mother and education. While many factors, both controllable and uncontrollable, affected these two men, this chapter demonstrates the positive epiphany Author Wes has and sticks to, which is largely due to his mother's influence, and contrasts what we later learn about Other Wes, who has a similar change of heart but does not have the education or discipline to make the change permanent.


3) "Aside from family and friends, the men I most trusted all had something in common: they all wore the uniform of the United States of America." (Page 132)



4)  "He understood that his thoughts contradicted his actions; he had long since accepted that. It was just that this tolerance of his own hypocrisy was wearing thin." p. 138 (Other Wes)

This quote is said by Other Wes when he discovers the mother of his third and fourth children high on heroin when she is supposed to be caring for the kids. As a leader of his drug dealing team in Baltimore, he never had to experience the hardship of addiction he was providing for others, because he was smart enough to know not to become addicted himself but to merely make money off of other people's weaknesses. He only saw the monetary gain he earned from his business and never really cared to pay attention to the lives of the people that his chosen career path was affecting. Until this point, this was only a niggling thought in the back of his brain but it was now coming to the forefront because of Cheryl's proximity to him. When he sees Cheryl, the reality hits him as he sees the impact of what drugs have on not only his community, but his own family. He started to realize that this wasn't the way that he wanted to live; it wasn't providing him with the order and discipline in his life that made him feel as secure as it once did. He starts to feel the chaos and disorder that his choices have brought upon him, and begins to, after some reflection, crave a system of discipline that his life so desperately lacks. Without a system that would discipline him and not give him the choice to stray away from the program, Other Wes didn't see a possibility to make the changes he so wanted to make until he spoke with his friend Levy, who told him about Job Corps. Job Corps was a way to use the thoughts and morals that Other Wes had deep down and put them into action so that his hypocrisy, that he so desperately did not want to be a part of him, no longer existed. Before Job Corps, Other Wes had none of the institutionalized rules in place that Author Wes had from his experience at military school; his mother was struggling to support the family, he now had a large family of his own and he was starting to feel he weight of the responsibilities he was not fulfilling on his shoulders. He knew that he had to make a change in order to successfully support his children, which had somewhat unexpectedly become a major concern for him. Like a child, Other Wes has found that what he has fought against for so long is now what he most desires: discipline and order.

5) "He stayed at the Job Corps Center so he could provide a better life for his kids. He stayed for his mother, who sat home watching Tony continue moving in and out of the criminal justice system. He stayed at the Job Corps Center for himself." (Page 144)

This quote is said as Other Wes is staying in a program to get his life on track to where he wanted it to be through vocational guidance and GED help. This quote emphasizes the fact that he chose to stay in this program because he knew that he could thrive and grow on the discipline it provided. For the first time in his life, Other Wes did not want to just skate by or con his way through an experience that he knew could change his life; he wanted to take advantage of this program and so he went above and beyond what was asked of him by producing a playhouse for his daughter that blew everyone away, including his instructor. (It is interesting to consider that houses usually represent safety, security, discipline and support, all of which Other Wes didn't have but wanted to provide for his daughter.) Building this large project was cathartic for Other Wes in that it did what, up until now, no one or no thing had one: brought discipline to himself and his children. This proves that an environment of discipline really can promote growth of an individual, and can bring out his/her best qualities, which is what Wes needed because of his chaotic life before entering the program. This discipline didn't just allow Other Wes to survive; it allowed him to thrive. In Other Wes' life, survival was something that wasn't even guaranteed, so being able to thrive and progress was a luxury and a beacon of hope for his future. However, once he graduated the program and left the cocoon of discipline his old life had been lacking, he soon fell back into old habits when he found that he was unable to get a well-paying job, despite his high success rate in the program, due to his record and lack of formal education, even at a lower-school level. This beacon of hope that had been give to Other Wes was now shattered and he felt that all this work he has done, without he same orderly lifestyle and disciplined environment, was going to be undone due to the temptation and proximity of the drug dealing lifestyle he was now thrown back into. Overall, though Other Wes was proven to succeed under a disciplined environment, it was not enough to protect him from the familiar undisciplined temptations that were his home, his occupation and his very upbringing.