The Soloist Essay

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The Messages of The Soloist While Steve Lopez was looking for an article to write, he stumbled upon Nathaniel Ayers. Nathaniel is a schizophrenic homeless man that finds himself under then wing of Steve Lopez. Steve wrote a book named, The Soloist, which describes the journey and conflicts him and Nathaniel go through. Throughout the book different messages are portrayed. It proves that homeless people can be gifted and stereotypes don’t mean anything. The book also shows that everyone does deserve a second chance in life. Homeless people have the worst reputations because of stereotypes. Society believes all homeless people are uneducated, had a bad childhood, and are heavily into drugs. However, in The Soloist, Steve Lopez shows a different side of homeless people and that all stereotypes heard are not always true. For example, the book shows that homeless people can be gifted. Nathaniel Ayers does have schizophrenia but he also has an exceptional musical intelligence. Mr. Barnoff, from the Cleveland Music School Settlement, taught Nathaniel how to play. He describes how brilliant of a student Nathaniel really was, “…Barnoff had never seen a student go months without practice, as Nathaniel sometimes did, then pick up an instrument and get such a great sound out of it” (19). Nathaniel attended Julliard, which is a prestigious art school in New York. Even with a mental illness Nathaniel was taught to play string bass but taught himself how to play the cello and violin. He can pick up, virtually, any instrument and start playing music like nothing. Steve Lopez received instruments from fans of Nathaniel’s story. Steve gave a cello to Nathaniel and within minutes Nathaniel tuned the cello and started playing beautiful music. To him playing music was as normal as breathing. In the book, Steve Lopez describes Nathaniel’s love for music, “I’ve never loved anything

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