Lauren Carbone 11-2
English III
Mri Fiorini
The Soloist Chapters 23-31

It is said that everything in life happens for a reason, and you learn from the things that occur throughout your life. In reading the soloist, Steve Lopez has provided me with multiple positive outlooks on why things happen as they do. The last few chapters of the book in my opinion were the most intriguing due to the drama and almost fairy tale like ending. It is the occurrences in these chapters that led me to dwell upon how in this story’s case, all people get what they deserve.
Nathaniel Ayers was a man who spent a great deal of his life homeless, living on the streets of skid house row. The conditions of this area were extremely poor and did not in anyway provide positive aspects of living. After Ayers developed a close relationship with Steve Lopez, a writer seeking a story for an article, things began to take a turn for the better. Lopez used the opportunity for an interesting article of a now homeless former Julliard student, as a way to speak out and create a message from the story of this man. His article on Nathanial Ayers earned a great amount of money and provided the homeless musician with a home of his own along with a studio to continue his passion for music. Although being homeless must have been a negative part in Nathaniel’s life, something good did come from it and I believe that this hard time in his life was to prepare him for struggles that can possibly come to face him further in life’s winding road.
Being provided with a home and studio of his own is the start of a new beginning for Nathaniel Ayers. I personally think he deserved this happy ending after living as he did for so long with such promising talent as a musician. It is also interesting to see how it seemed as if no longer being a student at Julliard and living on the streets was the end of his musical career, but now a whole new way of living was provided which is allowing him to take his music to a whole new level. In general I really enjoyed the truth and story line of The Soloist and I would like to think the friendship between Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez shall remain strong.