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.
Character Analysis
Raymond Jaffe
Raymond Jaffe is the main character of the novel. He is the son of a white mother and Black father and lives in his white stepfather Ed’s apartment of Ed. He has three younger, white sisters. Raymond’s father is a dentist who remarried a much younger woman, Neesha. Raymond believes, for good reason, that Ed and Neesha resent him; each interfere in his relationships with his mother and father. Of his sisters, only the toddler, Clarissa, gives him any attention other than taunting him.
Raymond is a consummate loner. The story begins with his only friend, Andre, moving to California. Raymond has a good heart, saving a stray cat from abuse and going to any lengths to assist the helpless Millie. Raymond carries a massive amount of undeserved guilt, constantly apologizing to anyone around him when anything goes wrong. He is tall, thin, and extremely uncomfortable in his body.
As the narrative progresses, Raymond experiences robust personal development. He learns to speak up for himself, develops an open relationship with both his parents, and overcomes his pervasive sense of dread. Raymond is asexual and comes to terms with the reality that being different is neither abnormal nor wrong.
Millie Gutermann
A blind, widowed, childless, 92-year-old German immigrant, Millie must rely on the assistance of others to take her outside her second-floor apartment. Most of the people she has known over the last 70 years have died or moved away. When Luis, her compassionate caretaker and friend, vanishes, Millie is literally shut off from all human contact. She resorts to standing in the hallway, asking anyone who passes by if they have seen Luis.
Millie, like Raymond, carries guilt. She is the child of a Jewish mother and Christian father who grew up in pre-war Germany, where the Nazis threatened her and her siblings. Her father bribed an official, allowing them to sail to New York. After the war, she learned that all her friends and acquaintances perished. Throughout her life, she has not overcome her feelings of survivor guilt.
Millie is a fount of wisdom and acceptance. As Luis told his wife Isabel, Millie is the least prejudiced person he ever knew. When Raymond mentions things he finds questionable in himself, Millie says he should grasp that he is a distinct but normal and perfectly acceptable person who has a worthy heart and does good. Millie is amazingly resilient; she eventually rises above her despair about Luis’s death to engage a new cluster of friends and embrace the joy of living.
Isabel Velez
Luis’s widow, Isabel, makes a profound impact on all the other characters. She is a gracious, loving person who embodies the generous, benevolent spirit of her deceased husband. She connects quickly with Raymond and Millie. Isabel can be circumspect about the tragic death of her husband, explaining—while enduring labor pains—why she will name her newborn after Raymond rather than Luis.
Isabel is brave and honest. During the first day of the trial, she leaps to her feet to contradict a misstatement about her husband’s death. She embraces the goodness of those who wish to help her, quickly forming bonds with Millie and Raymond. When Luis’s killer is acquitted, Isabel seems to move forward better than Millie and Raymond. She is a study in graceful gratitude when Luis the attorney takes her civil case on consignment and another Luis’s family throws a block party for her benefit.
Luis Velez
The Luis Velez named in the title of the book does not appear in the narrative except in the other characters’ memories and observations. Raymond encounters six other people of the same name. Hyde wants readers to recognize that all seven of these men are different. Though the deceased Luis does not appear, readers learn enough about him to understand what sort of person he was.
The Luis of the book’s title is a large, young Hispanic man with a lovely young wife and two children with one more on the way. His death directly results from an act of kindness on his part. Luis’s goodness sets the stage for the novel: Had it not been for four years of genial caretaking and true friendship with Millie, she would not have been calling out for him and engendered the same sort of goodness in Raymond.
Over the course of the novel, Luis becomes the standard by which every other Luis judges himself. At least three of the other men try to explain why they do not perform benevolent acts the way Luis did. Millie, Isabel, and several other characters say that Raymond is so worthy because he embodies goodness just as Luis did.
