Chapter 5: Lost

Theme: Overcoming Obstacles

Quote 1: " "Get up, get up, get out of your racks, plebes!" It was 5:30 in the morning, my room was pitch-dark, and the sound of half a dozen teenagers screaming at the top of their lungs startled me out of the light sleep I'd drifted into." (pg85)

Analysis 1 : This quote shows how Wes Moore was being comfortable and having a great sleep until all of a sudden someone is calling him to get up early in the morning. Yes, this is the life of a military scholar. This unusual routine of Wes having to get up early in the morning due to someone screaming to the top of their lungs represents an obstacle Wes is going to have to overcome as he progresses through military school.

Quote 2: " I turned around so I could face him and was met with a fusillade of saliva as he continued his tirade. Why in the world was he yellling so early in the morning? And who did he think he was, screaming at me like that?" (pg86-87)

Analysis 2: This quote again, also represents one of the many obstacles Wes Moore #1 is going to have to overcome at military school. Another obstacle includes him getting used to people yelling at him so harshly. 

Qoute 3: " When neither came, she reached back and unloaded another slap to my face. She looked at me again, waiting for a reaction... Every reflex inside said to strike back, but I didn't. How Could I? She was my everything," (pg88)

Analysis 3: After Wes was slapped in the face by his mother, he's usual response to anyone who would slap him is for him to fight back. But because this was his mother who had slapped him, he had to overcome to urge to fight her back and which he did.

Quote 4: " It had taken a while, but Wes was finally getting accustomed to the long route, the new school, and the new environment...but he soon discovered that the hood came in different shapes and sizes." (pg97)

Analysis 4: This quote introduces and foreshadows the newly life obstacles of Wes Moore #2 and what type of situations he would have to go through due to his newly environment he has moved to. it suggests that he would have to get used to the new school, the new way he would have to get to and from school, his new acquaintances and aside from school also some problems that he was already having to overcome back home such as gang violence or "hood problems" just they would come out in new different forms.

Quote 5: "Within two months of their meeting, Alicia told Wes that her period was late. Four tests and eight matching plus signs later, it was confirmed. They were going to be parents." (pg99)

Analysis 5:   This event of Alicia finally revealing that she was pregnant with Wes marks the beginning of a whole 'nother series of obstacles that Wes is going to have to overcome. Obstacles starting from telling his mother to obstacles such as him learning how to become a good father and be able to support Alicia and their child.