payment page
Chapter Five: Lost (1991)
Summary: Section 1 (Moore)
Moore wakes up to voices shouting for him to get out of bed, but he refuses. Sergeant Anderson comes in and yells at Moore, and Moore tells him to leave. He reflects on how after he was placed on academic probation and accidentally hit one of his sisters, Joy sent him to military school. Suddenly, Moore’s entire chain of command bursts in, turning over his mattress, welcoming him to Valley Forge Military Academy. Homesick and hating the strict discipline at the academy, Moore rebels.
Four days after Moore arrived, Sergeant Anderson gives Moore a map of the area with directions to escape, encouraging Moore to leave because he’s not wanted. That night, Moore follows the map closely but becomes lost in the woods. Distraught, he begins to cry. Suddenly, his chain of command surrounds him, and they take him to see Colonel Batt, who allots Moore five minutes to talk to Joy over the phone. Moore pleads to return home, but Joy refuses, having sacrificed too much to send him there. The next morning at breakfast, Moore, resigned to his fate, finds himself impressed by the respect shown to Cadet Captain Ty Hill of F Company, and Colonel Batt suggests that Moore talk to him.
Summary: Section 2 (Wes)
Wes meets a girl named Alicia on the bus to school. Even though Wes has many girlfriends, he and Alicia become close, and within two months, she is pregnant. Wes tells Tony, who has recently had a child, and Tony can’t help but to laugh at the situation, likening it to a TV show, but Wes feels trapped. Mary gave birth to another son, and at his first birthday party, Tony accidentally reveals to the family that Alicia is pregnant. Wes admits that his lack of connection with Bernard makes him more inclined to be there for his own child.
Wes and Alicia grow apart, and Wes is soon seeing a new girl, who visits him at his house. When the new girlfriend leaves Wes’s, her boyfriend Ray is waiting outside. Ray confronts the girl and then attacks Wes, punching him repeatedly. When Ray leaves, Wes runs inside and grabs his gun. He signals a member from his crew, and they chase Ray and shoot him. Back at home, Wes hides his gun, while Mary calls Tony asking for help. The police arrive soon after and take Wes into custody. Tony finally arrives, but Mary tells him that Wes is already gone.
Analysis: Chapter Five
Moore and Wes’s different understandings of respect and their disparate approaches to showing and earning it cause their paths to diverge further. Moore chafes against the authority at school, from his teachers at Riverdale to the commanding officers and upperclassmen at Valley Forge. But in military school, Moore’s attempts to gain respect through empty intimidation fail. Cadet Captain Ty Hill teaches Moore that true respect is earned through leadership and built on admiration rather than fear. Wes also seeks and defends his own concept of respect, but his understanding is forged on the street. When Ray and Wes fight over a girl, they don’t do so out of affection or love for her; their goal is to use violence as a way to demand respect. Moore suggests that this misguided understanding of respect steers many young men off the right path. The night ends with Ray shot and Wes in police custody, demonstrating the danger of “respect” that is based on and derived from violence.
Moore credits his deeper understanding of the meaning of respect as one of the most significant reasons he was able to rise above his circumstances. Events in this section demonstrate how negative patterns tend to repeat themselves if they are not forcefully stopped. In the Bronx, Moore playfully punches Shani on her shoulder and accidentally splits her lip, a scene reminiscent of the opening of Chapter One, when Moore’s game with Nikki escalates into punches and his mother screams at him. This time, Joy slaps Moore twice with her powerful “Thomas hands.” Her reaction reveals the depth of Joy’s trauma, the result of being beaten by her first husband. Joy’s slaps can be viewed as part of a cycle of violence; just as physical traits can be passed down between generations, so can abuse. Similarly, Ray’s attack on Wes and Wes’s subsequent retaliation fit a pattern of young men in rough neighborhoods seeking respect through escalating violence. In contrast, during Moore’s time at Valley Forge, violence and retaliation are not tolerated, an example of the stabilizing influence that military school has on Moore.
