LibGuides: ENGL B1AL: Happiness: Welcome

Professor Monks' Writing Prompts for The Soloist

Professor Monks' The Soloist Essay Assignment with Research

1. Ayers has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Alex Kopelowicz, medical doctor and professor, recommends that Ayers be given antipsychotic medication within a controlled, structured program, while Mark Ragins, also a medical doctor, argues against labeling Ayers with a diagnosis and medicating him. He promotes a self-guided, patient-determined recovery supported by caring facilitators (Lopez 102). Which approach do you think would be most effective for Ayers? Should forced treatment for Ayers’ mental illness be an option?

2. Ayers claims the music he plays “keeps the demons at bay” (CNN). How much power does music have over mental illness? Is music alone enough for Ayers to maintain happiness throughout his life? How effective is music as therapy? Can music therapy replace anti-psychotic drugs? Would a combination of music and drug therapy be beneficial? Why or why not?

3. Explore Lopez and Ayers’ friendship. Why does it work or not work? What are the challenges? Does Lopez’s friendship truly benefit Ayers, or does it create unnecessary turmoil? Is Lopez exploiting Ayers, as some accuse him of doing? How is Ayers’ friendship advantageous to Lopez? Lopez learns a lot about himself over the course of the book. How does this affect his him and his relationship with Ayers?

4. To what extent do Ayers’ childhood experiences and/or his life at Juilliard contribute to who he becomes? Can you theorize that his schizophrenia is caused primarily by environmental factors? Can you argue that his disease is psychologically or genetically based? Is it a combination?