Homeless Youth and Families
“Your violin has only two strings,” I say. “You’re missing the other two.”
It is here that the unlikely friendship begins between Mr. Lopez and Mr. Ayers. We hope you are enjoying The Soloist. We also trust that your previous discussions exploring the topics of joblessness, homelessness, and mental illness will continue and that your research will become more defined leading into the Town Hall Meeting on April 1st.
The Town Hall Meeting will allow you to discuss these and other related issues with your peers and MSU faulty and community members. Additionally, The Soloist’s inspiring story has been selected for the 2009 Freshman Summer Reading, and Steve Lopez will be MSU’s Fall 2009 Convocation speaker. Furthermore, the story of Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez will be released as a movie on April 24th. To meet Mr. Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers, click the link below:
“Mental disorders prevent people from carrying out essential aspects of daily life, such as self-care, household management and interpersonal relationships. Homeless people with mental disorders remain homeless for longer periods of time and have less contact with family and friends. Many of the mentally ill (especially those with severe disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression)…react irrationally because of their condition(s). This pushes away friends and family and other caregivers occasionally leading to homelessness or a longer a period of homelessness.” (Mental Illness, Chronic Homelessness: An American Disgrace, 2000). Nathaniel does very well with keeping up with his physique and managing his life, but he has detached himself from everyone he knows. This is the problem Steve works to solve. Although Nathaniel has a bad case of schizophrenia, with Steve’s help he learns to control and adapt to new people who surround and help him. And even though Nathaniel has his mental outbursts, he feels bad for what he did once he consciously realizes what he has done. He feels and care for others. By the end of the book, it’s hard to say that Nathaniel’s schizophrenia has improved, but it’s easy to conclude that Nathaniel has improved himself by getting involved with Steve, Lamp, other musicians, his family, etc. Steve communicates to Nathaniel that it’s not always best to be a complete soloist.