the soloist 13-22

Camille Franchine
June 6, 2009
Mr. Fiorini
English 3
Happiness

In chapter fourteen of this book Lopez realizes why Nathaniel doesn’t want his help. He always wondered why someone would want to live the way Nathaniel does by choice. He lives in the streets when he could have a perfectly nice indoor room to live in. Lopez realizes that although Nathaniel’s conditions don’t seem appealing, he is happy.
Lopez then thinks about all of the burdens that he has as opposed to the carefree lifestyle of Nathaniel. Nathaniel doesn’t have any bills to pay, any jobs to go to or any people to please. He does what he wants when he wants, and that’s mostly to play his music. He not only enjoys himself while playing his instruments, but brings enjoyment to others as well.
The way that Nathaniel lives, to me, is a great way to live. I’m not saying that I want to live on the streets, but I do think that being carefree the way that Nathaniel is, is a lot better than the way Steve is. A lot of people may have money and success, but that doesn’t mean that they are happy. Nathaniel doesn’t even have a home, yet he is happy. A good way to live life is to enjoy the simple things and to make the most of what you have.
Although Steve feels that what he is doing is better for Nathaniel, which may not be the case. Nathaniel has been living his life perfectly fine and Steve is changing everything for him. I’m still not sure if the change is good or bad. Although Steve is trying to take Nathaniel’s happiness away at the time, he is trying to make him even happier and better off, we just have to hope that Nathaniel realizes that.
However, I think that the meeting of Steve and Nathaniel is beneficial to both of them. Steve has never been more committed to something before and Nathaniel has never been cared about so much. They both need each other even though they barely know each other. It’s better not to question why or how they need each other, it just sort of happened. Even though Nathaniel was happy, now he has a friend and that’s something he needed and Steve is learning so much and putting his heart into Nathaniel.