Same Kind Of Different As Me

Unlike Denver Moore, Ron Hall is born with several significant social advantages for the time: He’s white, starts out life in the (lower) middle class, has access to public education, and grows up in an urban area. Then again, this doesn’t meanhis life is free of problems. His alcoholic father suffers from depression and much of Hall’s youth is spent collecting him from different bars and cocktail lounges. In addition, he’s socially awkward and has a hard time fitting in. This problem plagues him from elementary school all the way to his disastrous blind date with a sorority girl at Texas Christian University (TCU).

Hall is, however, a social climber, and determined to show the people in his life he can rise above the station he was born into. On one hand, he achieves all the trappings of the American success story: a lucrative career, a wife and two children, a big house, and plenty of disposable income. On the other hand, Hall’s private life isn’t as unblemished as it looks like from the outside. Without telling his wife Deborah, he spends money given to her for graduating college on his first painting to sell. His biggest art deal must be concealed from public view to avoid damaging his reputation. And, most problematic, he cheats on his wife.

Even after he and Deborah repair their marriage, Hall still displays a sense of superiority, especially with people further down the economic ladder. Despite being a born-again Christian, his idea of good works and deeds revolves around making hefty cash donations before resuming his regularly scheduled life. When he first becomes friends with Moore, he sees himself as doing good deeds for his poor, homeless black friend: generously buying him Starbucks coffee and giving him glimpses of a life he’ll never have. In the end, though, Hall realizes Moore’s rich spiritual life can teach him more than he ever would have guessed. This is especially important as he struggles with his faith during Deborah’s battle with and subsequent death from cancer.

As the book’s other narrator, Hall acts as a counterpoint to Moore: white, educated, financially successful, and a family man. These are, however, external factors which say little about Hall’s interior, psychological life. Just as Moore’s life demonstrates who you appear to be isn’t necessarily an indicator of who you actually are, Hall’s life shows making money isn’t the same as having virtue. In the end, just as Moore isn’t crippled by his impoverished background, Hall is not trapped by his success, and he displays a significant capacity for change and growth from the beginning to the end of the book.