Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet Analysis

The exciting and memorable novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie ford, is about a Chinese boy, Henry Lee, growing up in Seattle, Washington during World War Two when the U.S. was at war with Japan. The book highlights the struggles he faces when he makes friends with a Japanese girl named Keiko. There are many life lessons hidden within the book. We can learn something about preventing the injustice that took place from ever happening again from these. A few of these lessons are, stereotyping destroys, he who knows patience knows peace, and love is blind. The theme stereotyping destroys occurs in many places. One example of this is when the vibrant thriving portion of Seattle called Nihonmachi disappears due to stereotyping and discrimination against the Japanese people. All the Japanese living in Nihonmachi are sent to internment camps simply because of their ethnicity. While they are gone Nihonmachi begins to disappear. In the text it says, “Henry couldn’t bear to tell her (Keiko) that Nihonmachi was disappearing. Building by building and block by block, it was being transformed, bought out and renovated. He wondered how much, if anything would be left by the time they got out”(Ford 233). This means that Nihonmachi is disappearing because of the
In the story Henry’s father stops speaking to him after he finds out about Henry’s friendship with Keiko. Henry’s mother tries to go along with her husband, but she still acknowledges Henry’s existence by bringing him letters from Keiko and making his favorite foods. In the text it says, “After a few days his mother did acknowledge his existence, in her own way. She did his laundry and packed him a lunch” (Ford 186). This shows that even though she knows that Henry has disobeyed his father and done something unforgivable, she still loves him and is willing to take care of him. His father has completely shut him out. She is willing to go against him to help