These women were both very similar but very different in how they support their child. They are very similar because both are poor and do not have a husband to help the family. They both have to decide what their young son's life will be like because ultimately they are the ones who should make the rules. Don't let them go out and do what they want to do. What Mary is different about is that she doesn't have a lot of money. He doesn't care about Wes' discipline, he calls Tony and he has to deal with it. After he got into the drug game, she simply flushed his drugs down the toilet and later lost her son. He really didn't want to have his son back. I honestly think Mary is a very selfish mom. Where Joy is different is that it's not that she didn't have a lot of money, it's just that she had trouble continuing to pay for things for college or to help pay for Wes' school. He continued to want Wes to go to school even though it meant so much difficulty. Joy was also very depressed during the story, she was still trying to make Wes happy with school. I think he went all out for Wes. With the fact that Wes is no longer going to college. Paying for military school for Wes. Joy is not selfish at all and wanted to help become the man of the house. “He took the boxes into the bathroom, lifted the lid and emptied the contents into the toilet. He watched each time, every rock, every leaf, every crystal float to the bottom of the toilet until the water became cloudy and white. He pulled it away once and then again and again until the water in the bowl returned to its normal clarity. said the author (pg. 73) I think this shows that she cared about not wanting her son to do drugs, but at the same time I think she dumped them, so if she was caught with them. She didn't come in