Essay Questions

Show how police brutality is presented in Wes Moore’s Five Days and the effects that follow, as presented in the book.

After being arrested for the possession of a knife illegally, Freddy Gray is taken into custody by police officers. He is aggressively and antagonistically put into a car, a drive from which he is pronounced to be in a coma, a reversible one at that, at the end of the drive. As a result of this death in the hands of the police, deaths, as well as riots and massive uprisings, are witnessed in the five days that follow this fateful event. These are some of the effects that are presented as a result of this unexplainable tragedy as the people call for justice.

Poverty is the root of the fate that Gray suffers. Support this statement using illustrations from Wes Moore’s Five Days.

In the novel, Moore follows the events that follow the death of Freddy Gray in the hands of police officers. In so doing, Moore highlights through a multifaceted approach the role that poverty plays and the effects that it has on the African-American commune. Gray was born into an impoverished part of society, and as Moore argues, the system would have always worked against him. In the book, Gray tackles the question of how events would have turned out had Gray not been born into poverty and need. In this way, it can be argued that poverty played a pivotal role in the fate that befell Gray.

Death and tragedy are central to Wes Moore’s Five Days. Show how these are brought out in the novel.

Tragedy strikes in Five Days when Gray dies in the custody of the police after being arrested in the illegal possession of a knife. This is the first and major tragedy that happens in this novel and results in the death of Gray. Proceeding events in the novel all follow the happenings after this death as the general public seeks justice for the fallen man. In the riots that follow, deaths and uprisings and riots are witnessed in which lives are lost. In this way, the novel becomes centered on death and tragedy as the themes are examined in the days following Gray’s death.