43 pages • 1 hour read
Steve LopezThe Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship
Steve LopezNonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Significance of Art
Art is a central theme in The Soloist and allows for transcendence above everyday life and the challenges therein. Nathaniel Ayers is a character who has endured many hardships, from his struggle with schizophrenia to his homelessness. When Lopez meets him, Ayers has nothing but a shopping cart and a two-string violin to his name. However, Ayers has not given up on life. He uses music to transcend his everyday difficulties: “Nathaniel plays music that silences the voices in his head. It’s proof his illness hasn’t touched his soul” (167). Ayers can connect to his idols, such as Beethoven, when he plays. He is not merely defined by his homelessness or mental illness but rather by his connection to music.
Furthermore, music allows Ayers to literally move up and out of some of his challenging circumstances. Because he is playing violin in the Second Street tunnel, Lopez hears him and begins writing about him. This exposure in turn brings in donations of musical instruments and funds for Lamp. Later on, Ayers is able to move off the streets as a result of all the outpouring of donations and support in response to his music and his story. In this way, art allows Ayers to both figuratively and literally transcend his hardships.
Throughout the novel, art also represents a sense of purpose to both Lopez and Ayers. Lopez practices the art of writing and has lately become somewhat disillusioned with the field. However, through his relationship with Ayers, Lopez reconnects to a sense of meaning in his art: “It’s not just a journalistic calculation, but a matter of curiosity and a desire for meaning” (196). Art is a means of accessing truth, and Lopez’s writing allows him to access truth and significance through his relationship with and examination of Ayers. He is inspired in a way that he has not been in some time: “I think about great writers and the source of their creative inspiration. Does it spring from knowledge, experience, love, loss?” (71). His work with Ayers seems to spring from empathy and love. In this way, Lopez reconnects with himself and his initial love of the art of writing in his experience with Ayers.
The Complexities of Mental Illness
Mental illness is a central theme of The Soloist, and Ayers himself is a portrait of a person suffering from untreated schizophrenia. Through his coverage of Ayers, Lopez shows how an extremely talented artist can be taken down and reduced by mental illness: “The fastidious dresser became a wreck who wandered the streets with musical instruments, slept in the woods and carved names into tree” (16). Lopez demonstrates the power and reach of mental illness—it can rob a person of his ability to function in the world. Through dialogue, Ayers describes his own experience of mental illness, and he says, “You have no idea what’s going on with God, country, yourself” (79). In this way, schizophrenia has allowed Ayers to be completely separated from both his interior and exterior world. It is as if the illness is operating on its own, and Ayers is a just a body it is dragging along. Thus, Lopez underlines the power of mental illness to completely derail a person’s life.
Furthermore, Lopez is interested in the various methods of treating and contending with mental illness. There are varying schools of thought on the matter, and Lopez embarks on a journey to discover “who’s right about the most effective way to treat people like Nathaniel” (90). Some mental health professionals put medication at the center of treatment, quickly prescribing a course of treatment. These professionals might also embrace involuntary commitment—the quicker the patient is in treatment, the better. However, another branch of thought embraces a more personal approach: “The challenge for doctors, mental health workers and advocates is to treat the person and not the disease” (57). This is a methodology embraced by Dr. Ragins of the Village. Lopez spends time with Dr. Ragins, observing him and learning about his approach:“Diagnosis, prescription. That’s the history of mental health treatment, and Ragins believes it has been a colossal failure” (55). As the book progresses, Lopez learns that there is not one correct way to approach treatment. However, he seems to lean more towards the Dr. Ragins approach—he lets Ayers move along the path of recovery in his own time.
Racial and Institutional Inequality
The theme of racial and institutional inequality also emerges in The Soloist. Ayers’s identity as an African-American man comes up frequently in the book, beginning with his time at Julliard. Lopez describes him as “the rare black student in the elite world of conservatory music” (50). Once he steps foot into the world of conservatory music, Ayers’s identity as a minority is prominent. Lopez interviews several of Ayers’s classmates, and many have diverse backgrounds, both racially and socio-economically. For example, Joseph Russo is a white man who comes from an “upper-middle-class bedroom community of Manhasset” (73). He is a prime example of one of the many privileged Julliard students with whom Ayers has little background in common. Furthermore, when Ayers’s schizophrenia comes to the forefront, the university does not do anything to help him. A teacher reports, “Instead of dealing with his personal problem, he seemed to be lumped into the category of typically angry African American” (166). In this way, racial issues strongly influence Ayers’s trajectory.
Moreover, issues of race feed into that of homelessness and the social inequality therein. The majority of the people at Lamp are African-American males. So, too, are many inhabitants of Skid Row people of color. Lopez suggests that there is a tie between institutionalized racism and the homelessness epidemic in Los Angeles. Very few people are doing anything about it, and part of Lopez’s mission is to raise awareness.
Finally, race brings up an issue of appropriation in the book, which Lopez acknowledges. Lopez himself is an upper-middle class male of European descent who is telling the story of a homeless African-American man. Because of cultural power dynamics, Lopez has the upper hand of privilege. However, he is the author of the story—he is the one deciding what to include in the portrayal of Ayers’s life. Sometimes Lopez’s privilege makes him feel uneasy: “It’s hard not to feel a touch of guilt. Look at what I have here in this enclave of million-dollar homes, five miles from the squalor and hard limits of Skid Row” (223). Furthermore, Lopez is profiting from Ayers’s story—it gains him recognition through his column as well as a book and movie deal for The Soloist. In the book, Lopez suggests that Ayers will receive compensation from the book and movie, but he does not delve into the details in the text. In this way, the book provides continued tension through the theme of privilege.
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