Throughout The Soloist, Lopez uses the image system of squalor juxtaposed with elegance to create a near constant tension. Ayers himself epitomizes these contrasts. Although Ayers is homeless, Lopez is nonetheless impressed by the way he carries himself and his tie to something higher: “I can’t get the image out of my head, this odd picture of grubby refinement” (3). It is partially this contrast that draws Lopez to Ayers and his story. He later notes: “I notice a spider-sized gold pin on his shirt—a pin of an angel playing violin. Flies buzz over the adjacent bed of ivy and around the buckets that dangle from his shopping cart” (34-35). The gold pin elevates Ayers, connecting him to the idea of music. The flies and shopping cart keep him tethered to his life as a homeless man. In this way, these contrasts tie back to the theme of the transcendence of art. Although Ayers is reduced in his circumstances, there is still an elegance and refinement about him that points to his connection to something higher.

Lopez extends these contrasting descriptions to the larger city of Los Angeles. It is indeed a city of contrasts. When Lopez is driving to see Ayers, he writes: “At Fourth and Mina I hit the border of civilization” (60).