Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Belonging, Bigotry, and Identity
Silence vs. Communication
Family Dynamics and Inheritance
Memory
Love and Self-Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
Henry is on his way to the Panama Hotel to request permission to look through the belongings that have been discovered. On the bus ride there, he finds himself wishing he could tell Marty about Keiko, but he feels conflicted given that Marty’s mother, Ethel, has only been dead six months.
Henry can be seen clearly struggling with what it means to love and be loyal to someone. His memory of Keiko has in many ways sustained him, especially throughout Ethel’s battle with cancer, but Henry does not want to defile Ethel’s memory by revisiting his love for Keiko. Though his mind might be eased by talking to his son, Henry shows here that he has inherited his father’s tendency toward repression and silence.
Themes
At the hotel, Henry meets with Palmyra Pettison, the building’s new owner. She asks whether Henry is a relative of one of the families whose belongings were discovered. Henry claims he is Japanese, and writes Okabe—his “family’s name”—on Palmyra’s list.
This plot point is worth noting because it represents the first time in the novel that it is helpful for Henry to be mistaken for a Japanese (rather than a Chinese) American. The fact that Henry is willing to lie about his identity in the hopes of learning something about Keiko’s fate also underscores how devoted he is to his childhood love (despite the qualms he has about remaining loyal to his late wife).
Themes
