However, journalist Joe Wright did not look away from Nathanial Ayers, a homeless musician who had once been a prodigy but eventually developed schizophrenia. Although schizophrenia runs in families, external social stresses can precipitate its outbreak in a vulnerable individual. This can be seen in the case of Ayers, who was an African-American cellist. He had come from a family where classical music was seldom heard or played. Being thrust into an all-white world where he was expected to succeed was too much for the vulnerable Ayers. He felt he had the fate of his race hanging above him, dropped out of Julliard, and soon was living on the streets. Wright takes an interest in Ayers after he hears the homeless musician playing Beethoven on a two-stringed violin. Despite his many years living on the streets, Ayers clearly has a need to produce music: music grounds him and helps silence the voices of paranoia within his mind. Wright helps secure a fully-stringed cello...

As he grows increasingly embroiled in Ayers' life, Wright finds himself taking on more and more obligations on behalf of the mentally ill man. This is frustrating, because the course of Ayers' illness is not resolvable in an easy, neat Hollywood fashion. Although Wright is a journalist, there is no clear solution to Ayers' problems that can be tied up at the end of a story. There is no magic pill or treatment to make Ayers whole again.
The Soloist, in terms of its portrayal of mental illness, clearly shows the benefits of using real life stories to detail the difficulty of treating the mentally ill. Mentally ill people often resist rather than embrace treatment, and although Wright's intervention is clearly beneficial to the emotionally ravaged Ayers, helping a mentally ill individual takes a toll upon both the giver as well as the receiver of aid.