The author develops the idea that the freedom of choice is real but it's affected by external factors that a person might not have control over. This can change the entire trajectory of a person's life.
Wes Moore grew up a few blocks away from the other Wes Moore. They had very different lives, however. The author had a life that supported his ambitions and helped him find success; the other Wes Moore didn't have the same support and ended up in prison.
Both men are the result of their choices. However, the other Wes Moore wasn't a person who always mad bad decisions. At one point, he opted to go to Job Corps in the hope that he'd be able to find a good job. When that didn't pan out, he turned to crime.
The author, on the other hand, had less of a concern about his future. He knew he'd have support. Even if things didn't work out, it was less likely that he'd turn to crime because of his background. He had the freedom of choice—like the author—but it was less likely that he was going to have a successful outcome because he didn't have the same variety of choices and support.
The idea of freedom of choice is presented in the book in a complex, subtle way. Although the other Wes Moore grew up in a rough neighborhood, living in poverty and without any parental guidance, he still had freedom of choice, albeit severely restricted. No one forced him to lead a life of crime, to get involved with selling drugs on the mean streets of Baltimore. And no one forced him to get involved in the events leading up to the murder of a police officer. The other Wes Moore may not have had many choices in life, but he still had them.
By the same token, the author's more privileged background didn't prevent him from making bad choices himself. When he winds up at military school, instead of seeing the experience as a great opportunity to change his life, he doesn't take it in the least bit seriously. He fails to get with the program and tries to go AWOL four times. Yet thankfully for him, he makes the crucial decision to stay at military school and knuckle down to some serious work. In other words, unlike the other Wes Moore, he redeemed his bad choices in life with a good one.
One of the author's main points is that the other Wes Moore did not have a great deal of freedom in the choices he made. The other Wes Moore was raised in an environment in which drug dealing was perhaps the clearest and easiest way to make money, and the other Wes Moore did not have access to educational and other opportunities that could have paved the way for a different life for him.
The author makes the point that chance or luck plays a critical role in determining the paths of African American men in this society. The author was fortunate to have a mother and grandparents who supported him and who helped him get on a better path by emphasizing education and by helping him make good choices, even when he faltered (for example, when the author did not do well in private school, his mother sent him to a military school). The other Wes Moore, through no fault of his own, did not have access to these types of chances, and his freedom of choice was limited.
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