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
It has been a week since Keiko arrived at Rainier Elementary, and she and Henry have established a pattern: after school, they meet to clean the classrooms, “the second part of their work duties.” Today, Henry and Keiko finish their cleaning and find Chaz Preston waiting outside the school. Chaz threatens to beat Henry, calling him “Jap lover.” Before Chaz can act, Mrs. Beatty arrives and assures Chaz that if he hurts Henry, he’ll be expected to perform Henry’s kitchen duties. Chaz relents, but before he goes he shoves Henry to the ground and rips off his “I Am Chinese” button, pinning it to his own shirt.
This scene is important to the character development of Mrs. Beatty. Up until this scene, Mrs. Beatty has been indifferent to the bullying Henry has faced. Here, however, Mrs. Beatty stands up for Henry. This moment demonstrates that even imperfect people can be allies in the face of hatred, and that love can come from unexpected places.
Themes
After Keiko helps him up, Henry turns to thank Mrs. Beatty, but she has already left. Keiko asks how long Henry has attended Rainier, and Henry explains that his parents want him to have a Western education instead of “going back to Canton for [his] Chinese schooling like all the other kids in [his] neighborhood.” When Keiko asks why, Henry says that the Japanese army has invaded northeastern China. Though the conflict is far from Canton, his parents don’t want Henry to be in China—even though Henry’s father always wanted his son to finish school in China.
This is a key plot point, as Henry’s Chinese schooling will later become a point of contention between Henry and his father. This conversation also reemphasizes the fact that Henry feels almost as different from his Chinese American peers as from his white American peers. Part of the reason Henry and Keiko will develop such a strong connection is due to their shared experience of not fully belonging in either “half” of their identities.
Themes
Keiko asks whether Henry was born in China. He replies that he was born in Seattle, on the outskirts of Chinatown. Keiko says that she was born in that same hospital. She is a second-generation American; her grandfather was the first in her family to immigrate to the United States.
Henry and Keiko’s experiences with bigotry differ, as a first- and second-generation American respectively. However, both characters find themselves forced to “prove” their claim to Americanness, because their nonwhiteness disqualifies them in the eyes of many of the white characters.
Themes
Henry realizes that he and Keiko have walked all the way across Chinatown to the edge of the Japanese neighborhood, Nihonmachi. Keiko gestures around her to the many broken windows and boarded up shops, as well as a public works employee replacing the Mikado Street sign with one that says Dearborn Street. “This is why they send me [to Rainier],” Keiko says of her parents. Henry thinks Keiko looks afraid for the first time since he’s met her.
This is an important moment of foreshadowing; the Americanization of the street sign hints at how all traces of Japanese identity are being gradually erased from Japantown. Ultimately, Japanese American families themselves will be removed from Japantown and place in internment camps.
Themes
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