The Soloist: Chapter 17

I chose to do this chapter individually because it starts and ends with Nathaniel’s first lesson with Snyder. However half way through the chapter a sort of flashback type thing happens. Steve explains it but he fused it as a flashback to one of Nathaniel’s teacher who had to deal with him when he was first started to have outbursts. The teacher’s name was Gary Karr, and he noticed that the outburst seemed to be because of a mental illness, not just because of what Nathaniel said was racially motivated attitude. Once the topic switches over the lesson again, it tells how impressed Snyder was with Nathaniel’s playing, and even thinks he might be a musical genius. At the end of the lesson Snyder tries to convince him to keep having lessons in the apartment and in a way gets through to him. Nathaniel brought up how he thinks that every criminal will walk through the door and steal everything he has, and how he prefers the tunnel to play under. But Snyder just tells him “Think of this as a clean, quite tunnel”.