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
One month passes. Henry has turned thirteen. His father is confined to a wheelchair, and while he can whisper words to Henry’s mother, he refuses to speak to Henry. Keiko left for Camp Minidoka on August 11th. She’s now been gone more than a month, and Henry has not received a single letter from her. Chaz Preston has been kicked out of Rainier Elementary for vandalizing buildings in Japantown. Henry is wracked with guilt over not telling Keiko how he feels. He feels that even “after all the time he’d rebelled against his father’s wishes and his father’s ways […] he wasn’t that different from him at all”—not when it came to communicating his feelings.
This is an important moment of introspection for Henry, as he realizes that he has copied his father’s behavior by not expressing his true feelings for Keiko. Of course, this is not be the last time Henry will unconsciously replicate his father’s behavior. The fact that, as a father himself, Henry will continue to struggle against the noncommunicative tendencies handed down by his own father shows how lasting the negative effect of silence can be on personal relationships.
Themes
Walking home alone from school one day, Henry stops to talk to Sheldon. Henry tells Sheldon how much he regrets his goodbye with Keiko. He says, “I didn’t even really say goodbye as much as I sent her away.” Sheldon suggests that he and Henry take the Greyhound bus to Idaho to find Keiko. Henry insists that he can’t leave his father: “If he found out I’d gone all the way to Idaho to see a Japanese girl, his heart would give out completely…” Sheldon assures Henry that his father’s stroke was not his fault, but Henry leaves for home anyway, convincing himself that going to see Keiko “just isn’t practical right now.”
Henry’s guilt over his father’s stroke underscores how toxic a relationship Henry and his father have. Though Henry’s father has not directly accused Henry of causing his stroke, the fact that Henry so readily shoulders the blame emphasizes how Henry has been made to feel responsible for prioritizing his father’s happiness over his own. Sheldon’s suggestion of going to Idaho is important because Henry will eventually decide to take his advice.
Themes
At home, Henry’s mother informs Henry that a birthday card came from him. It’s from Keiko, and she signs it saying: “I won’t write you again, I don’t want to bother you. Maybe your father is right.” Hands shaking, Henry goes to his room and counts the money he’s saved all summer. He emerges with a suitcase and tells his mother he is going to the bus station and will be back in a few days.
Henry and Keiko’s relationship is starting to experience strain—not just because Keiko is in an internment camp, but also, it would seem, because of Henry’s reluctance to express how he really feels about her. In this scene, however, Henry shows that he is finally ready to act on his feelings, even if he still has some trouble verbalizing them.
Themes
Henry and Sheldon take the Greyhound bus together. Henry is planning to give Keiko his “I Am Chinese” button and try to sneak her out of Camp Minidoka with him. Henry and Sheldon make it to Walla Walla, where they stop and order food to go. They’re both surprised by how welcoming the people are whom they meet at the restaurant.
The people that Henry and Sheldon meet in Walla Walla are Adventists, a religious group “lending charitable aid to imprisoned Japanese families.” Both Henry and Sheldon are surprised at the kindness and decency of the people they encounter on this leg of their trip, emphasizing how accustomed both these characters have become to being treated poorly by white people.
Themes
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Finally in Idaho, Henry and Sheldon have no trouble finding Camp Minidoka: it has become “the seventh largest city in Idaho.” The two ride into the camp with a group of nurses. Sheldon points out Japanese men digging a sewer line and guesses that “it’ll be months before they get hot water or flushing toilets.”
Again, Henry witnesses firsthand the inhumane conditions in which his fellow American citizens are being held. The fact that male internees are being forced to do hard labor shows that Japanese Americans truly were being treated as prisoners of war.
Themes
Inside the camp, Henry finds a staff member who arranges to have a letter sent to the Okabes, notifying them they have a visitor. She cautions Henry that it might take a day for Keiko to get the notice that he is here. Henry fills out the slip and writes his name as “visitor,” since he wants to surprise Keiko. Henry and Sheldon wait for hours, until visiting hours end. As they head back outside, resolving to return the next day, Henry imagines he hears Keiko’s voice.
Henry’s decision to write “visitor” instead of declaring his name shows that Henry wants to do his best to bring some cheerfulness to Keiko’s life by surprising her. This decision might also imply that Henry is still feeling nervous about what he will say to Keiko to convey how deeply he cares about her.
Themes
In fact, Keiko is there, standing outside the visitor’s center, clutching the notice Henry filled out. Keiko runs to Henry and he slips his hands into hers through the fence that separates them. Henry tells Keiko that he came to apologize for not saying goodbye. “I didn’t know what goodbye really was,” he says. Then he leans in to kiss Keiko through the fence. She kisses him back. “I came to do that,” he says.
Henry stumbles a bit in his conversation with Keiko, but he finds the confidence to show (if not tell) her what he feels by kissing her. The fact that Henry and Keiko have to kiss through a fence is a powerful image that shows just how unlikely their love story is, and how that love is powerful enough to thrive despite the hardships both characters have been facing.
Themes
