Discovering Wes Moore: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

For two years after Westley’s death, Joy sleeps on the living room couch—ostensibly to ward off intruders, but also to avoid the pain of sleeping in an empty bed. She does her best to maintain the life her children had grown accustomed to in that house, but despite help from the community, she is eventually overwhelmed and decides to move back in with her parents in the Bronx.

Driving up to the Bronx, Joy tells her children about how safe and friendly it is there. When they arrive, however, it’s clear that thing have changed in the decades since she left: the neighborhood now looks like a war zone, with burned-out buildings and evidence of crime everywhere. Wes spots a sex worker buying drugs on the street and a shrine memorializing a dead little girl. Wes’s grandparents greet Joy and her children joyfully when they arrive, but Wes soon overhears them telling his mother that the neighborhood has gone downhill, and crack cocaine has become prevalent. His grandfather declares that he still has faith in the goodness of his neighborhood and isn’t going to leave.

Soon, Wes grows restless with his cramped new living situation and his grandparents’ strict rules about chores and curfew. One day, he finishes his chores early and is allowed to go play basketball. Walking to the courts, he’s thrilled by the vitality on the street, but frightened by the areas that have been burned down (for insurance money, he will later learn).

On the court, Wes dribbles by himself until a group of older kids, including two neighborhood boys named Ozzie and Deshawn, invite him into their game. Wes is quietly thrilled. The basketball courts are a vibrant cross-section of the community, with people of all types and ages hanging out there. Wes loses badly in the game with the older kids, but they invite him to play with them again tomorrow. Wes feels his confidence increase.