Brandon Cleveland - Scene Depiction

In the movie, The Soloist, I've chosen to do my scene depiction on the "New Cello" scene. In this scene, Steve Lopez has given Nathaniel Ayers a new cello and lets him play a song. The setting of the scene takes place in a dim, dirty tunnel that is filled with traffic. Nathaniel obviously appears to be homeless, the way he dresses consists of a wide variety of worn out, colorful clothing. The way he verbalizes shows us that he has a mental disability which interfeers with his speech, causing his words to scatter along with his thoughts. Steve is an average individual, but he sees beyond the fact that Nathaniel is homeless and wants to help him. He realizes Nathaniel's musical talent contradicts his appearence. As Nathaniel begins to play, Steve is able to look beyond their differences, and sees that someone as beaten, and confused as Nathaniel can create something very beautiful. As he continues to play, Steve begins to neel down, I view this as a sign of equality. In life, vertical level differences indicate a sign of authority, power, and social classification. As Steve neels, this symbolizes that he is no longer looking down on Nathaniel, even though society expects that of him, due to the fact that he is in a much higher social class than Nathaniel. As he continues to play, the idea of Steve and Nathaniel being different from one another is no longer a factor. Steve does not see Nathaniel as a schizophrentic, homeless black man, instead he realizes that dispite their differences, Nathaniel is still a human being. Most people wouldn't listen to a single word that came out of his mouth, let alone the music he produces. This shows us that the setting, the wardrobe, and the character chosen for this specific scene, were all meant to enhance the irony of the music that is played by Nathaniel in this specific environment. This helps the song that is played on the cello stand out more, due to the fact that it is very contradicting to the environment. By doing so, it shows us that Nathaniel has talents and abilities that exceed way beyond what we expect of him, which puts us in the same position as the rest of society, causing us to be amazed at his talent.