The Soloist (pg.1-40)

Summary
In the exposition of The Soloist by Steve Lopez the reader is introduced to the characters beginning with Steve Lopez. Steve Lopez is a journalist for the Los Angeles Times and he is in the means of finding a new idea for his next column. Along his search he runs into a homeless man who plays a two stringed violin. This man draws the attention of Steve and he wants to look more into the mans life and history. Among his finds he discovers this man is Nathaniel Ayers (which is the second main character) and he once went to school at Julliard. Julliard is a top elite school for musicians and it was very hard to believe for Steve that this man who is now hopeless use to play for Julliard. Steve begins to go in deeper in the story of the man and finds out that he is a paranoid schizophrenic and became sick and later dropped out of school because of his disorder. This disorder left him homeless, no family nor friends but just the violin which held his music and intellectual memories. As the novel continues it is known that the column allowed many people to want to send musical instruments based of the column about Nathaniel Ayers. The only problem is Nathaniel refuses to enter the Lead program and receive help but he must compromise in order to play the interments he adores so much.

Quote
" Yeah, but i don't need the hassles I'd have to deal with going all the way over there with all of that nonsense. This isn't Cleveland, Ohio. It's a Beethoven town that doesn't have all of that snow and ice. Los Angeles. Roman Gabriel. Jackie Robinson. I like it right here in the tunnels, where i can play all day and nobody's going to bother me"( Lopez 30).

Reaction
When I began to read the novel I thought it was not going to be interesting but I believe it was going to be like the movie which many say is not good. After reading the first couple of chapters I began to draw much of my attention towards the actual events. I began to pay attention to what was occurring with the characters and the hard decisions they are starting or had to face. Reading this quote made me realize that many people are comfortable where they are and they rather not be moved. With Nathaniel Ayers he rather stay in the tunnel to be alone with his music rather than putting up with the difficulty of moving around and becoming custom to a new environment. When he states it is a Beethoven town he is refering to its a town of soul and music to which Beethoven is they key, the main point to where everything is surrounded by. People who need the help will ask for it you can't force it upon them because they will not want it.