The Soloist- Chapters 13-22

Jennifer Tabasco 11-2
English III
Mr. Fiorini
May 15, 2009

Chapters 13-22 of The Soloist

"I look into his eyes and see the man he's always been behind the racing, spinning madness. The son who lost a father. The musician who lost a chance. No, we don't hold too many so-called normal conversations. But what's normal?" (212).

Halfway through the completion of The Soloist, I have read and visualized in my mind how Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez's relationship has come to be. For the most part, I see some of the same actions repeatedly occuring each time a new chapter begins. Steve Lopez is constantly and consistently wanting Nathaniel to move off the street and into one of the Lamp apartments where he knows that he will be in safe care throughout the entire day. Nathaniel is constantly and consistently resisting Lopez's consideration because in his mind, he feels the necessity that in order to express himself, he has to show it through music but inside his own tunnel. It seems to me that everytime Steve Lopez keeps bringing up the idea of Nathaniel moving into an apartment, Nathaniel loses his mind because: 1) He has no control of the apartment place even if he wanted to live there, 2) Nathaniel is extremely stubborn when it comes to thinking things clearly through, and 3) He views his homeless lifestyle as being proper and right because wherever the music takes him, he will follow the music. So far, throughout Chapters Thirteen to Twenty-two, there have been occasions of personal reflections made by Steve Lopez on Nathaniel's well-being and how he will learn to deal with Nathaniel's random outbursts. From my perspective, I see these reflections as being well-written poems that are just longer in length because these reflections give insight and the chance to experience the emotional mindset of Steve Lopez through his questioning and through his personal statements.

In Chapter 13, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles contacts Steve Lopez and informs him about possibly walking down to Skid Row to see the destruction of the district. However, Steve politely declines because of the mayor's celebrity status, and Steve doesn't want all of that media attention for all the wrong reasons. Lopez says that,"The mayor can't help but want to save the world." (130). Well, if Mayor Villaraigosa can't help but want to save the world, how come he hasn't attempted or at least made an effort to save the homeless society of Skid Row out in California? Isn't that duty apart of being mayor: to rescue and maintain the society that one reigns over? In addition to this, this particular mayor probably could get by without doing anything beneficial to support Skid Row because of his celebrity status. Now, Steve Lopez doesn't inform the reader on how and why Mayor Villaraigosa has this celebrity stamina. This is a very interesting idea because I think that Lopez allows one to infer or make predictions about why you think this mayor has this potential to be a so-called "superstar." Mayor Villaraigosa also stated that he's adding Skid Row to his "fix-it" list. A fix-it list?! There shouldn't have to be a list for things to be fixed upon. As mayor, this person should know what all of the central issues are, and your occupation is to come up with lots of possible solutions in order to resolve these issues as soon as possible. In addition to this, by the end of this book, I would like to see at least some form of government that is supporting and financing anything dealing with the homeless society in Los Angeles.

"Is he happy?" (137). I think that I could be able to answer this question posed by Steve Lopez in Chapter 14. To a certain point, yes, Nathaniel Ayers is content when he's doing his most favorite and loved hobby in the world, which is playing classical music on the cello and violin. But, as soon as Steve Lopez rambles on again about how much it would mean to him if Nathaniel just moved into room B-116, Nathaniel becomes a totally different person. This question has been bothering Steve Lopez ever since he met Nathaniel Ayers in that special tunnel four years ago. What does it mean for Lopez to finally realize that maybe Nathaniel is happy with his life? I think that if Steve Lopez wants to change Nathaniel's life, he's going to have to change his own life before anything else dramatic happens. If Nathaniel wants to play music at the tunnel where he is the most satisfied, then Steve should allow him to remain there instead of bringing him into an environment where he's not comfortable at all. People shouldn't force other people to do things that they don't really want to. On the other hand, this is Nathaniel's life I'm talking about here, and for this point, I believe that in certain circumstances, other people do have to stand up for someone if they're in real danger of losing their life every day because if they really care and love that person, they will do anything for them to just live their life. To just live their life also comes with the safe part. Steve doesn't want anything bad to happen to Nathaniel. He would be just crushed and devastated if that ever happened. That's his worst possible nightmare ever because of how emotionally connected Steve has become towards Nathaniel.

One final idea that I would like to discuss for Chapter's Thirteen through Twenty-One post is about how Chapters Sixteen through Seventeen talk about Nathaniel's younger years. I thought that talking about Nathaniel's childhood for these two chapters was really interesting because now, as a reader, I understand where Nathaniel is coming from and how he was brought up as a child, even though his childhood was told from Steve Lopez's perspective. "It's something appropriate, because you're kind of a wandering bird." (162). Spoken by Pete Snyder, this quote was extremely interesting because in some ways, I agree with his quote, but in other ways, I don't agree with it. I agree with this quote because Nathaniel spreads his wings out when he's playing his music, but when Steve persistenly keeps asking him about moving into the apartment, Nathaniel shuts down and becomes hidden beneath his own skin. Maybe, Nathaniel wants to be a bird, free to express himself through his music, and maybe, with his music, he can overcome this mental illness and win the hearts of millions of people around the world.

In conclusion, the quotes that I have written about in my post are the most fascinating quotes that I have read about. For the rest of the book, I really can't wait to see more of Steve and Nathaniel's relationship bloom, and I would really like to see Nathaniel open up more out of his mental shell. Yes, he has his own apartment now, but that was just the very beginning of becoming comfortable in an unknown place. To end this conclusion, I just hope by the end of the book, the book will end with a contentful feeling to it. Nathaniel is such an inspiring character to think about, and I hope that Steve Lopez brought that inspiration to the end of the book.


For This Post:
- I need to know if every idea was written clear for understanding.
- I need to know if there were any grammatical errors in my post.
- Any ideas that I could have expanded on or wrote less about?