The Soloist by Steve Lopez

Judgment and the Color-Line
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Judgment and the Color-Line
“He’s coming around in his own way, and it has to be that way. With us supporting him and earning his trust. Otherwise, you could lose him forever." (Lopez, 2008, p. 135).The Soloist is about a strange and unique friendship amongst a successful white man, Steve, and a schizophrenic black man, Nathanial. Nathanial is, or at least could have been, one of the country’s musical geniuses; however, due to his illness Nathanial is homeless. The story is about how, upon befriending Nathaniel, Steve has to learn to let go of his “white” judgments and allow Nathanial to be his own person and live with the lifestyle choices he pursues. This release must be done regardless of his own cultural beliefs of what is right and what is wrong.
The whole story is meant to bring about the racial differences and decisions that people make on individuals depending on their color and individuality. Steve Lopez in his book, he introduces us to Steve, a Loss Angeles Times Columnist who after some time identifies a black man dwelling in the streets. The writer brings out the the racial differences as held whites over blacks. Throughout the book, Steve’s view of Nathaniel is that of someone who is inadequate. This shows the inherent idea of the whites that blacks are not as better as they are. Pershing Square, where Nathaniel would play his violin, was the point of meeting with Steve. The effect of schizophrenia on the way Nathaniel thought led to him dropping out of the Julliard School. Steve first thinks it is not possible for such a person living in the school to be a graduate of such a prestigious school; this is another instance where we find the judgment of Steve is biased based on his view of an individual. It is indeed necessary to find cases where there is contempt on the basis of the outlook; different individuals have always made judgment based on the outward appearance hence poor and uninformed decision. It is, therefore, necessary that as a person, we don’t make decisions depending on our feelings and past experiences but on the current facts and information.
Nathaniel’s teacher believed in his talent and always urged him to practice more and more. “You’ve got to make music your life. You’ve got to practice, practice, practice.” (Lopez, 2009, p. 18). Harry Barnoff saw the potential and great talent in Nathaniel and believed with practice, soon he would be a great musician. He did not despise him on the basis of race but rather saw the potential in him. Though, in his early stages, Nathaniel seemed not so much focused, his teacher kept persuading him up to the extent that he came to perfect his skills and even played in a world class orchestra. Barnoff believed in more than talent for one to be successive. He would always urge his student to put a lot into practicing the art rather than to sit and relax. It is, therefore, clear from the interaction and encounters from Barnoff that we realize that, in Nathaniel, the teacher saw a talented young black American man. He did not discriminate him or see him as incapable because of his skin color. The writer indicates the relationship of the teacher and Nathaniel as that of mutual respect and the teacher tried his best to make his student the best person he would by ensuring he developed and grew his talent.
Winning the scholarship to Julliard to pursue his long term thought career, Nathaniel was never judged by color and race but his ability and talent. He wanted to emulate his mentor, Harry Barnoff. The desire to study and become a great musician always gave Nathaniel the push forward to be the best person he wanted to be at his young age. He was never discouraged by the fact that he was a black American but rather encouraged more and more by the good and inspiring people who surrounded him like his mentor Barnoff and the mother. Such inspiration was not biased. People would believe in his talent without basing their judgment on his race, there was purely no relationship between the skin color and the quality of talent of an individual, the quality of thinking, and the actions we take are solely not based on our color but on the quality of our humanity.
The meeting of Nathaniel and Lopez is another instance of the great contempt as depicted by the writer. Lopez considers the good music from Nathaniel should be coming from a particular class of people and not the street person like Nathaniel. This thought by Lopez makes it hard for him to easily link with Nathaniel, and it takes pretty long for Nathaniel to see the sense of his coming. The first encounter brings forth the different views held by the two, and they are from different social classes, and their inspiration for what they do is different. Nathaniel is inspired by the streets of Los Angeles, and the city to him is an orchestra and he draws his inspiration from there. The sight of a palm leave swaying, in his mind a sound of a violin is heard. The roaring of bus gives him a bass line. The footsteps from moving human traffic develop in him a Bach and Brahms imagination. The streets are what makes his orchestra band. "I can't survive," Nathaniel once told me, "if I can't hear Los Angeles the way I like to hear it." (Lopez, 2009, p. 26). The city gives him all the comfort he imagines. Nathaniel’s condition of schizophrenia affected the way he would also reason, and he had dropped out of school from the prestigious Julliard School where he was pursuing his music career. The effects would later influence the way he was living, he left his house and decided to live in the streets after the death of his mother. Maybe the streets consoled him and gave him the company he longed for, his mother was his refugee as sister Dorothy accounts in the columns that were written by Lopez.
The encounter with Steve on that day in 2005 was not planned; it was coincidental. Steve himself cannot tell how it happened that he came to like the music from Nathaniel as he never was an enthusiast of Jazz and classical music. The music from the broken violin attracted Steve to Nathaniel. Is was like the instrument and Nathaniel merged together to form a unitary musical object or person. Steve tried to talk Nathaniel to co...