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
On the ride home, Henry thinks about his goodbye with Keiko. He hadn’t hugged her—just waved and smiled. He wonders if he did the right thing; he couldn’t bear “the thought of telling her how he really felt and then watching her go.”
Henry clings here to the idea that he spared Keiko (and himself) some pain by not expressing his true feelings. As he will find out later, though, repressing one’s feelings actually causes deeper pain in the long run.
Themes
Mrs. Beatty drops Henry off at home and tells him, “Don’t go changing schools on me now. I still expect to see you in the kitchen this fall, got it?” When Henry enters his apartment, he finds a Chinese doctor named Dr. Luke is in the kitchen on a house call. Henry’s mother is crying at the kitchen table. Henry’s father has had a stroke, and while Dr. Luke expects he will live, he explains that he is now barely able to speak. Henry is overwhelmed by guilt. His mother grips his hand and says: “Not your fault. Don’t think this. Not your fault—his fault, understand?”
In this scene, both Mrs. Beatty and Henry’s mother show their love for Henry. Mrs. Beatty affirms that Henry belongs in her kitchen, even if his classmates make him feel that he doesn’t belong in other spaces at Rainier Elementary. Henry’s mother, despite her grief over her husband’s stroke, steps up as a parent by reminding Henry that children are not responsible for the emotions of their parents.
Themes
Henry asks to see his father. At Henry’s father’s beside, Henry’s mother encourages Henry to speak, saying that his father would “want to know you’re here.” Henry offers his father a formal Chinese apology used when “admitting guilt or fault”: deui mh jyuh, meaning “I am unable to face.” In response, Henry’s father grips his hand and strains to say one word: saang jan, meaning “stranger.”
Henry’s formal apology underscores how desperate he is to feel loved and accepted by his father. However, Henry’s father clings to his stubborn beliefs. In rejecting Henry’s apology, Henry’s father imposes a new kind of isolation on his son, formally declaring that Henry is a stranger everywhere he goes—even in his own home
Themes
