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Justin is the only other Black boy at Riverdale, the predominantly White private school Wes attends as a boy. They quickly become best friends and remain so throughout their lives. Wes and Justin both feel alienated from both their school and their neighborhood surroundings. Justin takes academics more seriously than Wes and tries to encourage Wes to do the same.
Justin Quotes in Discovering Wes Moore
The Discovering Wes Moore quotes below are all either spoken by Justin or refer to Justin. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3 Quotes
It was like being double agents or superheros—we had another identity off that campus. It was stressful. I felt like a chameleon. Justin did, too. If we wanted to fit in with our crew, we had to act a certain way. If we wanted to fit in with the kids at school, we had to act another way. And we wanted to fit in with both—very different—groups. But we wanted to do it on our own terms, by being “ourselves.” I was having a difficult time understanding what that meant, and I also felt the burden of representing something bigger than myself. There was this increasing need to wear the mask wherever I went, and the mask seemed to change based on the audience.
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After Wes and his family have gotten settled into their new life in the Bronx, Joy grows concerned about the terrible public schools in the region and resolves to send Wes to Riverdale, a rich, mostly White, private school. When Wes enters in the third grade, he quickly befriends Justin, the only other Black boy in the school. Justin is also from Wes’s area of the Bronx, and this passage describes the difficulties the two boys face in navigating the “very different” worlds of their neighborhood and their elite private school. This passage highlights the profound stress that trying to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque
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Justin Character Timeline in Discovering Wes Moore
The timeline below shows where the character Justin appears in Discovering Wes Moore. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
At Riverdale, Wes quickly befriends Justin, who lives near him and is the only other Black boy in his grade. Justin’s...
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One day, Wes and Justin go to hang out with Ozzie and their crew. Wes’s friend Paris gives him a...
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Wes and Justin take the subway home, a harrowing journey at nighttime. Justin asks about Wes’s poor grades,...
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...to Riverdale, and he realizes that he feels out of place there, too. He and Justin feel like they are straddling two different worlds between school and home—it’s as though they...
(full context)
Chapter 6
One day, Wes gets a letter from Justin, with whom he’s kept in touch. Justin has bad news from the neighborhood: Shea has...
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