Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet Summary

Keiko started out as being Henry's partner in serving food at Rainier Elementary. As time went by, the more they became comfortable with each other. They became best friends, and were always by each other's side. Despite Henry's father having a great disapproval for Keiko, it didn't stop them from being together. Although, one sad day, the American government ordered all Japanese American families to be relocated and put in internment camps, due to WWII. This meant Keiko and Henry would be separated. It came time for Keiko to leave, and she and Henry would never see each other again. Henry told Keiko, "I'll be waiting for you when this is all over" (232). Henry being the persistent boy he is found a way to visit Keiko and her family in the camp. Meanwhile, causing great turbulence between Henry and his father. His father put an end to the letters they were sending, and caused Henry and Keiko to grow apart. Henry grew up and learned to live his life without Keiko. Although, he thought about her constantly. Keiko changed Henry into becoming a strong independent man. Like the story of Romeo and Juliet, star cross lovers cannot be apart, so Keiko and Henry find their way together again in the

First of all, meeting MacLeod’s criteria for a “good” historical fiction”, Ford’s novel does not “make overt rebellion seem nearly painless and nearly always successful”. Ford displays this when Keiko is taken away Henry keeps some of her belongings safe under his dresser, as well as when Henry sneaks into two different Japanese internment camps searching for Keiko. Though this rebellion seems rewarded at first, as we continue reading we see how, by going to the internment camps and keeping Keiko’s belongings, Henry unknowingly starts a chain of events leading to one, giant consequence. Because Henry keeps Keiko’s belonging, and later writes her letters, his mother finds out and tells Henry’s father. Henry comes home one day and finds his parents at the kitchen table waiting for him with all of Keiko’s pictures spread all over the table. Because of this, Henry’s father gives him a choice: walk out the door and no longer be part of the family or stay and forget about Keiko. In the end Henry chooses to follow his heart and leaves his family (182-185). This forever affects the relationship between Henry and his father, even on his father’s deathbed.

The novel “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” written by Jamie Ford is a compelling novel about a young Chinese American boy name Henry. Henry is growing up after the Pearl Harbor incident and the start of the internment camps for Japanese Americans. Henry’s ethnicity as a Chinese American affects his childhood in being bulled in school, having a distant relationship with his parents, and causes issues with his first love Keiko, a Japanese American girl.

Jamie Ford writes “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and sweet” and the publisher of the book is Ballantine Books. They published the book in English on 1st February 2009. “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” story sets during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history. The time period of the story is after the Pearl Harbor boomed and the internment of American-Japanese families during the World War II.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a story that explores the experiences of Chinese and Japanese Americans during World War II with both insight and compassion. The story begins in 1986 with Henry, an elderly Chinese-American man walking past the Panama hotel in Seattle, which has been boarded up since the war. Memorabilia within the basement of the hotel take Henry back to 1942 and his fifth grade true love, a beautiful Japanese girl named Keiko. Henry and Keiko are the only Asians in their all white elementary school, to which they are “scholarshipping” and do not feel a sense of belonging or acceptance within

Henry was a normal boy and did all of the normal things young boys do: making noise, being busy and active, nosing around in the refrigerator, and asking questions - all part and parcel of being a normal child. But he was brought up to believe he wasn't a "model boy." His parents were constantly interrupted by him - his mother while she was reading and grading papers, and his father so much so that he spent most of his time in his office on campus, joining them only at mealtimes. His father wished to remain "blissfully unaware."

Moreover, another event from the movie that shows his (CD) is his attempt to kill his mother. After running away from her in the woods and hiding, he tries to push his mother of a cliff. This plan was once again stopped by Mark. This ultimately led to Henrys death. This shows just how maladaptive or out of touch with the world Henry was. As I pointed out earlier, Henry was a very intelligent and manipulative child. He convinced his parents and other elders around him to believe that he was the perfect child and tried turning them against his cousin Mark. He even had Mark’s doctor believing that Mark had a problem. According to (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 12/10/09) both of these events are characteristics of (CD).

Finally, Reuniting with someone after a long period of time shows that separation can not stop one’s from pursuing its loved ones. Certainly many readers seem to consider that Henry does not give up on Keiko too easily because they reconvene at the end. However, in the first place, Henry never wanted to go, as he genuinely believes that there are no benefit and that it is the only alternative way. On the way home from Camp Harmony, Henry reflected about what his father says: “His father said once that the hardest

Jamie Ford, the author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, wrote a story about a Chinese boy named Henry and how he fell in love with a Japanese-American girl named Keiko Okabe. Their adorable and heart wrenching love story took place at Seattle, Washington during World War II when tensions rose between Americans, Chinese, and Japanese. In the novel, Henry’s father was a traditional Chinese man who was extremely loyal to his country. Due to his strong devotion to his homeland and resentment toward Japanese people, he disapproved of his son’s friendship with Keiko. As Henry’s affection and admiration grew for Keiko, his relationship with his father suffered. Misunderstandings and built up frustrations emerged from their lack of communication. Henry struggled with communication, the key to forming a strong relationship and a UULO that is significant throughout this novel. Because of this, he had a difficult time maintaining many of his relationships, including the one with his father, Keiko and his son, Marty.

This is definitely a good thing for his job ,therefore he is very successful but it make him very mean and selfish. Before he was cheating on his wife and wasn't treating her and his daughter right. On the other hand, after his injury he became the nicest, most kind man they had ever seen. He genuinely cared for his wife and child unlike he had before. In one scene his daughter gets scared to go to school and he makes up a story to help her cope with the anxiety she feels. Henry ,now being a changed man, hates that he was a crooked lawyer before. He looked into his old cases and notices how poorly he treated the people in the cases. He quits his job and goes to the family from the last case and gives them evidence for them to win the case that he was on before. He was willing to put his job on the line for those

Stephen Crane’s short story, The Blue Hotel, is a very diverse and interesting story with many themes. One of the themes is consequences for your actions. In the story a man they called the Swede went to a bar and tried to force a Gambler to drink with him. He kept pushing and wouldn’t leave the man alone resulting the Swede being killed. Another theme in this short story is honesty. During the Story the Swede claimed while playing cards that another character, Johnny, was cheating. While Johnie denied it another guy at the table, known as the Easterner, also knew he was cheating, but he didn’t speak up resulting in Johnny and the Swede fighting. Consequently causing the Swede to go to the bar where he was killed. The Easterner felt guilty for the death of the Swede because if he only would’ve been honest about Johnny cheating the Swede would have never went to the bar where he was killed.

Being held by your word because you make a promise, or commitment is frustrating and tough. You don’t always want to do what you promised because it could be hard, or get you into trouble. Throughout the book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry and Keiko’s relationship comes at a cost. They make commitments that comes with sacrifices which makes them hard to keep. Through Henry and Keiko’s relationship Ford shows that commitment is difficult.

For all of the ups and downs of Henry Lee’s life he makes his life good with his love and friendship. Jamie Ford wants to get the reader's attention on friendship by writing Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Henry’s life was a wild, crazy, and hectic he was shunned out by his family just because he was being a good friend. Friendship is something that people can not live without. Just like Henry did a lot of things just so his friend can be happy, he showed that his friendship meant a lot to him knowing there was consequences.

After the Vietnam War, Henry was crazy and unstable. For instance, when Henry was watching television and he bit through his lip with blood pouring everywhere (977). The blood was getting on his bread every time he took a bite, but because of his lost ability to think straight Henry doesn’t even flinch as blood pours everywhere. Also, at the end of the story Henry snaps on his brother Lyman. He punches Lyman, which leads to a fight ended by the laughing of Henry (980). During the fight with Lyman, the extent of Henry’s mental changed, to turn on a family member and physically strike him. Henry illustrates how crazy he is when he jumps in to the river all of the sudden to “cool off”(981). This action by Henry ends his craziness and his life.

To begin with, Henry and his father always had a very complicated relationship. In the novel, the father and son never seemed to understand each other and their intentions. As a child, Henry was baffled to why his father always seemed to contradict what Henry was asked to do. Henry being a Chinese American was “asked-no, told him to stop speaking their native Chinese” (Ford, 12). During this time, the Japanese and Chinese relationship were faltering as it was at the peak of World War II. Henry’s parents were “desperate for him to learn English” (Ford, 12). Henry’s parents never spoke to him in English, always Cantonese. Henry was told, to “only speak you American” (Ford, 12) by his father. This foundation would later create more conflict as Henry and his parents never seemed to understand each other. Since Henry was told by his parents to only speak English, Henry had a difficult time communicating with his parents. Henry never had a good foundation with his parents because of the language barrier that was created. Throughout the novel, Henry would try and communicate with