Chapter Six: Hunted (1994)

Summary: Section 1 (Wes)

Wes and his friend Woody attended Northern High School. Moore explains that Northern High School’s graduation rate is significantly lower than that of the rest of Baltimore county. While Woody graduates defying the odds, Wes dropped out two years before. After serving six months in juvenile detention for shooting Ray, who was only wounded, Wes couldn’t catch up with his schoolwork and dropped out. Wes now lives with his aunt Nicey, and Alicia lives with their child at her parents’ house. Due to his criminal record and lack of education, Wes can’t find a good job and becomes a full-time drug dealer. He now has his own crew and brings in almost $4,000 a day. One day, a man approaches Wes for drugs. The man seems suspicious to Wes, so Wes turns him away. Remembering he needs extra money for a date, Wes decides to take a chance, finds the man, and sells him some crack. The police suddenly surround and arrest Wes.

Summary: Section 2 (Moore)

Moore, now a sophomore at Valley Forge and in command of his own platoon, has matured and enjoys his new life. He has earned both academic and athletic scholarships, making Joy proud. Several colleges have been actively recruiting Moore, and he hopes to become a professional basketball player someday. While visiting home, his uncle Howard reminds him about how few people make it to the NBA. Moore takes Uncle Howard’s advice to have a backup plan to heart.
 
Back at school, Moore receives a letter from his friend Justin and learns that Justin’s mother is dying of cancer and that Shea has recently been arrested. One Saturday evening, Moore and his friend Dalio walk into town to get some food. During their walk, they are harassed by a group of teenagers in a car. Moore and Dalio try to ignore the boys and walk away. Suddenly someone yells a racial slur, and Moore is struck in the face with a bottle. Moore and Dalio hide and make their way back to campus through the woods, where Moore recalls being lost when he first arrived at Valley Forge and considers how much has changed between then and now.

Analysis: Chapter Six

Moore uses military metaphors to describe Wes’s life in the drug trade, creating a parallel with his own advancement through the ranks of military school. Wes is a “lieutenant” who runs his business “with the precision of a military unit,” supported by street dealers who Moore calls “ground soldiers.” As Wes rises from a lookout to a confident leader of his crew, Moore rises from a lowly, insubordinate plebe to a platoon leader commanding the respect and obedience of others. Both Wes and Moore reflect their new authority in their clothing, Wes in his “fresh” outfit and designer shoes, Moore in his uniform. However, while military school insulates Moore from the dangers of the outside world, the drug trade does not protect Wes in the same way. When Moore is attacked, Dalio stays with him and they run to a campus that protects them, but when Wes sells crack to a police informant, he faces arrest alone with nothing and no one to protect him. 

Moore’s sense of identity is inextricably linked to Valley Forge until an incident in Chapter Six. At this point, Moore has come to see Valley Forge not as a prison but as a source of protection. He compares his uniform to a “force field” that shields him and the school itself to a “bubble,” conveying that he has come to think of Valley Forge as a safe place. However, being attacked while in uniform forces Moore to consider the possibility that this feeling of safety is an illusion. Before the attack, Moore tightens his tie as if girding himself with his uniform, but rather than protect him, the uniform attracts the attention of his attacker. To protect himself, Moore relies not on his training as a soldier but on lessons from his Bronx upbringing, indicating that an individual’s character is formed by multiple factors. Moore realizes that Valley Forge doesn’t protect him as much as it enhances his ability to protect himself. Moore’s safety comes from a synthesis of the self-control he learned at Valley Forge and the street smarts he learned in the Bronx. 

Moore emphasizes that whether you are family with others by blood or by choice, familial bonds play a pivotal role in a person’s development. In this section, both Wes and Moore are separated from their parents and siblings, and they seek out other groups to belong to. For Wes, that group is the drug crew, which Moore describes as a tightly-bonded support system for its members, stating simply, “it was family.” As Wes becomes more tightly bound to his crew, he largely avoids his actual family members and no longer lives with his mother or his own child. For Moore, Valley Forge provides connections that feel like family, as evidenced by Sean, who Moore refers to as a brother. At the same time, Moore still maintains his relationship to his high school friend Justin. Moore continues to build bridges without burning old ones, whereas Wes becomes totally consumed by his surrogate family and the drug trade.