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.
Part 2, Chapters 16-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 16 Summary: “Despair”
Raymond has already been concerned about Millie’s withdrawal since Luis’s death. He grows even more wary after the acquittal of Luis’s killer. Chapter 16 begins with Raymond making Millie promise that she will leave her apartment, where she has remained for eight days following the trial. They agree to travel to Battery Park. This was one of the first places Millie saw upon arriving in New York City in 1938, when she was 11 years old. Raymond says she has told him almost nothing about her past. Millie responds: “Today I will talk about it” (253).
Millie describes living in Nazi Germany as a child. Since her mother was Jewish, she and her siblings were considered Jewish. She tells the story of her family’s escape and reveals that she has always suffered from survivor’s guilt since so many neighbors, friends, and extended family members did not get out and were killed by the Nazis. Raymond does not understand why Millie, who was a child, should feel guilty, since she had no part in the decision to leave. Though persecuted in Germany, Millie says she dwells on the other side of privilege as a white New Yorker. She expresses frustration that those who are privileged are blind to their biases. She says: “The jury did not even see. They did not even see, Raymond. What can you do with a world where people do not even see?” (259).
Raymond goes to his father’s apartment. His stepmother Neesha greets him. She tells him it is not his weekend and resists allowing him to speak with his dad. Malcolm agrees to take Raymond for an ice cream soda. Raymond listens to Neesha criticize his father for going with Raymond. Raymond asks Malcolm how he can lift Millie’s despair. His only suggestion is to be present for her. They discuss the possibility of talking to a lawyer about any legal options Isabel might have.
Raymond agrees to bring Millie to Sofia and Luis’s home for chocolate cake the following Sunday. Raymond asks Sofia what someone can do to lift the spirits of a friend who is in despair. She says that she will consider the question and reply on Sunday.
Raymond asks the librarian, who has become something of an advisor, the same question. She says that the best course of action is to embrace the beauty and goodness of life; this will not remove evil but make life worth living.
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary: “Flames in the Darkness”
Raymond visits the office of Luis the civil litigator to ask if he can help Isabel. Luis remembers him and says it is possible to file a civil suit against Ms. Hatfield. He says he will take the case on consignment so that Isabel will owe no money unless he wins, which he is confident he can do.
When Raymond’s mother washes his jeans that evening, she finds a $100 bill in the back pocket and demands to know where he got it. Raymond realizes the attorney snuck it in there as he was leaving. Raymond uses the money to buy a bouquet of flowers for Millie. She knows he has brought flowers as soon as he enters because she can smell them. Raymond takes the bouquet to her to feel before placing it on her table. He explains that he is taking her to Sofia and Luis’s home for supper the following Sunday.
Millie and Raymond sit in honored places around the Velez family table. Prior to blessing the food in prayer, the family joins hands. It startles Raymond when Luisa takes his hand. Sofia repeats the question Raymond asked her—how can you help someone who is in despair—which thoroughly embarrasses Raymond. The answer she gives is that the despairing person must know that others care. She says to Millie: “So I just wanted to let you know that he [the deceased Luis Velez] matters to every single person at this table” (279). Abuela, Sofia’s mother and grandmother to all the children, says in Spanish that family’s used to throw block parties to raise money and lift the spirits of those in despair.
One of the younger boys left ice cream out of the freezer, and Raymond and Luisa go to the store to buy more. Luisa asks Raymond if he has continually worn the Saint Jude medal or just put it on because he came to see her. He replies that he has worn it ever since she gave it to him. Luisa kisses him, thoroughly embarrassing Raymond, who explains he is not romantically interested in her.
When one of the children is sent out of the room, Sofia apologizes to Millie for the disruption. Millie responds with a quote: “somebody said when you decide to be alone or have a family, you’re pretty much choosing between feeling lonely or feeling aggravated” (286). Luis gives Raymond money so he and Millie can take a taxi home.
Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary: “The Cellist”
This chapter focuses on a street busker, a cellist in Midtown Manhattan, whose music captivates Raymond. After listening to several songs, Raymond asks how long the man will be playing and goes to the apartment building to bring Millie.
Riding the subway, Millie tells Raymond of a dream in which her childhood friend, Annaliese Schmidt, chastised her for withdrawing from life. Millie says: “She said it was very selfish of me to base my participating in the world on whether the world was pleasing me at the moment” (291). Millie declares that, whether it was just a dream or Anna’s spirit was really speaking to her, the message was correct.
They listen to the cellist and Millie cries. She says her father played the cello in Germany and, though he brought it with him to the U.S., he never played it again. Raymond notices she did not bring her white cane. A waiter from a street café brings Millie a chair. She and Raymond interact with the cellist and listen for two hours.
On the ride home, they discuss God’s intentions. Raymond asks Millie if she believes in God. She replies: “I believe in something […] Something that I certainly hope knows better than me how the world should be arranged” (296).
Part 2, Chapter 19 Summary: “The Block Party and the Sunset”
As Raymond is leaving his apartment to take Millie, Isabel, and her children to Sofia and Luis’s, he briefly interacts with his mother. Though they communicate awkwardly, both express hope in an expanded relationship.
Raymond’s small group believes they are going to the Velez’s home merely for supper. They discuss the lawsuit that Luis the attorney is launching on Isabel’s behalf, which the attorney gives a 95% chance of succeeding.
As they approach the apartment, they hear a band playing. Sofia sees them, hurries to greet them, and says: “Welcome to our block party” (300). As the evening wears on, around 80 people come to eat and dance. Most, however, want to speak to Isabel and donate to her family, which at the end of the night amounts to around $700.
Millie becomes exhausted. Raymond walks her toward the subway though Isabel and the children remain at the party. As they walk and talk, they face the setting sun.
Part 2, Chapters 16-19 Analysis
Hyde leaves her readers to guess at Millie’s backstory for the majority of the book. The final section begins with Millie telling Raymond about how her family escaped Nazi Germany and the emotional scars from losing her friends and extended family, and from surviving when so many died. For Millie, the greatest irony is to find herself privileged when so many people like Luis and Raymond are discriminated against and feared because of their skin color.
The theme of family—and what it means to be a family—permeates the novel, particularly Chapter 17. Family is a great source of strength for Millie. Since he is asexual, Raymond is troubled by the thought that he may never have a family.
Millie puts his mind at ease when she tells him there are many types of families, and that he can choose the sort of family that is right for him. This conversation takes place against the backdrop being invited by Luis and Sofia to return for another family celebration. Luis and Sofia offer a vision of what family is like, the idea it is not just something you are born into, but something you can choose.
Chapter 18, where Millie and Raymond listen to the cellist, is the most meditative and spiritual chapter of the novel. Almost in anticipation of this musically therapeutic experience, Millie describes her vision in which a childhood playmate chastises her for not engaging life to the fullest. Her and Raymond draw from the spiritual well of the cellist, whose music has the power to cleanse their sorrows. Though the conversations between Millie and Raymond have been deep from the start of their relationship, listening to the cellist adds a new depth to their friendship. The cello music is significant for Millie in that her father never played the cello again after leaving Germany. Symbolically, the cellist offers her musical closure. The absence of Millie’s white cane implies that, with Raymond, she can see and travel fearlessly.
Though Luis’s killer is acquitted, the book ends with hopeful developments: Raymond’s mother works to connect with him; Isabel sues Ms. Hatfield; Sofia and Luis throw a block party and raise $700 for Isabel and her children, who feel welcomed and embraced by the Velez family and new community. Hyde seems to suggest that, while life can be unfair and awful, it is also filled with love, friendship, family, and beauty.
Hyde does not end with the neat and tidy— “and they lived happily ever after.” Instead, she implies that Raymond and Millie’s story will continue after the final page: “The sun went down, and they just kept walking together. Slowly. Into the figurative sunset. Into whatever the world had in store for them now” (307).
