46 pages • 1 hour read
Catherine Ryan HydeHave You Seen Luis Velez?
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Similarities and Differences
Hyde creates a complex storyline in which people who seem most similar are incredibly different, while those who seem to have nothing in common have identical concerns. Raymond and Millie are distinct individuals with similar issues. Millie is a blind, 92-year-old German-Jewish widow. Raymond is a biracial, 16-year-old New York City high school student. However, they share a powerful similarity: Each loses the most important person in their lives. Millie’s caretaker Luis disappears and Raymond’s only friend, Andre, moves to California.
As Millie and Raymond grow to know each other, other similarities between them emerge. Each feels completely isolated—devoid of family and friends. Dark-skinned Raymond, who has no friends after Andres moves, lives with his mother and stepfather, who are white, and their three daughters. Though he frequently visits his Black father and stepmother, Raymond knows he is not welcome to stay with them. Millie’s husband and family members are deceased. She has lost contact with all neighbors and friends, in part because the residents of the apartment building have completely changed. Her blindness restricts her ability to interact with new acquaintances. These two characters are islands of aloneness in the sea of New York City.
Raymond’s list of 21 Hispanic men named Luis Velez demonstrates how people who might be seen as similar are absolutely different. Each Luis that Raymond contacts is distinct in attitude, career, lifestyle, and family. The only real similarity each Luis shares is a desire to do more benevolent work, like Millie’s Luis. In demonstrating the differences between similar people and the similarities between different people, Hyde prophetically explains that prejudices fail. All assumptions made about other human beings cannot predict or explain others.
Different Ways of Seeing
Throughout the novel, Hyde refers to seeing, light, sight, and vision. At the beginning of the book, Raymond observes the dullness of the natural light coming into the apartment: The light has failed. Millie, who has vision problems, asks if he has seen Luis; Millie has not and cannot: The light has failed her.
As Raymond gets to know Millie better, he realizes she sees things in different ways. She recognizes the sound of his walk and knock. She smells the presence of an animal and of flowers. More importantly, she can see Raymond’s inner self. In their first extended conversation, she asks him why he is unhappy. Eventually, Raymond knows Millie well enough to admit that, though she cannot see, she is the only person who really sees him. Millie says that she misses her vision but is grateful for the different types of sight she has acquired. When Raymond takes her to hear the cellist and Millie leaves her cane behind, she is making a statement: Dependable, loving Raymond is her newest way to see.
Fear Distorts Judgment
From the beginning of the novel, Hyde portrays Raymond as a fearful person. He fears speaking his mind to his mother and stepfather. He fears making mistakes. He fears appearing awkward. He fears walking into strangers’ homes. He fears his fellow students. He fears that his lack of sexual interest in girls or boys means he is abnormal. His overabundance of fearfulness, as Hyde reveals, impairs his judgment. Raymond runs in terror from a tough-looking Luis who, sensing his anxiety, simply says “boo.” He is afraid of Luisa, whose childlike romantic feelings make Raymond escape her presence. Hyde demonstrates that, when afraid, Raymond’s judgment is distorted.
Raymond is not the only fearful character in the story. Vivian Hatfield, the person who stands trial after shooting Luis, also leads a fear-based life. The prosecutor’s examination reveals the fear that permeates her worldview. The most powerful expression of her fear is the pistol she carries in her purse. She wrongly shot a man who tried to return her pocketbook, five times.
Hyde, however, makes a distinction between Raymond and Ms. Hatfield. Ms. Hatfield, when asked by the prosecutor, says that she would not do anything differently if confronted in the same way in the future. Raymond, on the other hand, faces his fears. Though frightened of talking to strangers, he forces himself to search the city for Millie’s lost caretaker. He resets his relationships with both of his parents. He learns to ask for wisdom from Millie and follow her advice. Hyde tells the reader that fear can be overcome and good judgment restored by facing one’s fears.
The Contagious Nature of Goodness
Emotions are contagious throughout the narrative. Isabel, Millie, and Raymond begin their companionship by crying. When Ms. Hatfield is acquitted, the main characters share profound shock. When they attend the block party, all feel expansive joy. Hyde demonstrates that kindness, generosity, and compassion are also contagious. As other men named Luis Velez hear of the deceased Luis’s goodness and realize the sacrifice Raymond is making to find him, many express a longing to help others and find ways to assist Raymond. When strangers on the street see Raymond helping Millie, many are compelled to respond, whether simply with an encouraging smile or paying for their taxi ride.
There is an unspoken contract between Millie and Raymond. In Chapter 18, Raymond insists that Millie come downtown with him, even though she does not want to. Because he does so much for her and asks so little in return, Millie realizes she must respond in kind whenever he asks. Hyde implies that goodness is contagious, that acts of kindness breed kindness in return, and that compassion cries out for more compassion.
