Family Dynamics

Family Dynamics In the world there are many different kinds of relationships around us everyday. Relationships may bring happiness, hardship, and love. Anyone that is willing to be in a relationship of any kind will experience these times. In the book Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter and Sweet By Jamie Ford. Henry witnessed these factors in his relationship with his father, son, and his friend keiko. Henry’s first relationship that was proteid in the book was between him and his father. The relationship began kind of ruff for Henry. Henry’s family is Chinese and is living in the U.S. Unfortunately, for Henry this did not mean adapting to the U.S. culture. Henry’s father was very strict when it came to Henry’s life. For example he made
This relationship was very similar and very different from the relationship Henry had with his father. The way it was similar was the separation they had with Marty after Henry’s wife Ethel died of cancer. This tragic loss sent Henry into a very dark place which then caused the separation between Henry and Marty. After Henry learned to cope his wife’s death Marty came to his father with news that he was getting engaged to a woman named Samantha. This big news that Marty brought sent him and his father into a better stage in their relationship, they began to communicate more and spend a great amount of time together again. “Mary was happy. Successful, good grades, and happy (173). This quote shows how happy Henry must had been because he had the son that everyone wants. Unlike Henry and his father the relationship between Henry and Marty had a great deal of compassion and love. This really shined through when Marty really tried to encourage his father to reconnect with his old friend Keiko. Like a good man Marty approached this in a very aggressive way. The things he was he took his father to the Panama Hotel were Japanese used to keep their belongings during WWII. The reason he took his father there was to try and find Keikos old belongs, Marty did this because he thought if his father found Keiko’s personal belongings it would give him the push to go find Keiko. The thing that really caused Henry to go when his
Henry and Keiko’s relationship first started when they met each other at school where they bonded because they were the minority. Overtime their relationship grew and they began to share things from their personal lives and figure out what their common interests were. Unfortunately life is not perfect, because Henry knew that his father did not like Japanese people. To avoid this confrontation he tried to keep their relationship secret to his father. Although this seemed to work there was a problem on the other side. Keiko was having a problem with the relationship, she was living day by day because she did not know when her and her family would be sent to the Japanese Internment camps this caused Keiko to not want to expand the relationship. Later on in the the relationship the tides turned Henry found himself saying goodbye to his dear friend Keiko, because she was being forced by the U.S. Government like all the other Japanese americans to move to camps and get them out of civilian life. “Keiko wrapped her arms around him and whispered in his ear. “I won’t forget you” (135). This quote shows how much Keiko loves Henry and how she is truly going to miss him. After Keiko was sent to the camp Henry visited her once in awhile and brought her things the made her happy. After time passed Henry stopped visiting Keiko and moved on with his life and planned to go to a school in china the following