Part Two of The Soloist

As Steve Lopez continues his journey to help Nathaniel Ayers, he takes an up-close and personal look at what Nathaniel is up against: his own so-called home, Skid Row. Skid Row can be described as a bombardment of drugs and mental illness. A complete catastrophe of heroin addicts and mercenary muggers, the whole image of a man productively playing a violin in the middle of all of the police/ambulance sirens would surprise and yet frighten you.

While reading, you can't help but wonder why Lopez would go through so much trouble in order to help out Nathaniel. This whole story on the progression of a street instrumentalist is no longer a job to Lopez, but a commitment. As committed as some people might be to their jobs, I doubt many people would stay the night within the mayhem of Skid Row just to help out someone who refuses to seek much dependency on medications, and with a flip of a switch could flip off of the wall. Maybe we'll come to find that as much as Nathaniel needs Lopez, Lopez needs Nathaniel a little more.

I support what Steve is doing in every way possible. However, after careful comparison and observation, I am worried about the outcome of the situation. I compared the curiosities of protagonist Lopez with protagonist Nick, from The Great Gatsby. Both Nick and Lopez took interest in someone they didn't know much about, and sought to find out more about these mysterious characters (Nathaniel and Gatsby). However, the outcome of Nick's obligations towards Gatsby resulted in is neighbor's demise. Will the efforts of Lopez result in Nathaniel's decline? If not a total decline, how will Nathaniel redeem himself?