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. First, by looking at the way Henry’s ethnicity played a large role in getting him bullied in school. Henry’s parents decided that it would be better off if Henry would go to an all-white school rather than a Chinese school. In the hope that, Henry would become accustomed to American culture. However, this resulted in Henry being bullied in school by all the white children and even the other Chinese in his neighborhood. Before going to school he would pass by his neighborhood where all the Chinese kids that were once his friends called him “white devil” and Then he would get to school and the white kids would call him “yellow” (Ford 39). Once they started to get all the Japanese and take them to the internment camps. Henry started to get bullied even more since several of his classmates thought he was Japanese American. Likewise, to Henrys ethnicity playing a large role for getting him bullied in school, his ethnicity also cost him the distant relationship with his parents.
“He was vehemently against all things Japanese. Even before Pearl Harbor, the war in China had been going on for almost ten years. For his son to be frequenting that other part of town — Japantown — would have been bad form. Shameful to him . . . “ (105)
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.
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.
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.
In the novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, a common theme and a UULO demonstrated how it’s critical to maintain good communication between relationships to prevent confusion. Henry demonstrated the importance of good communication as the lack of communication caused a division between his parents and Henry, which later influenced how Marty and Henry communicated with each other.
THESIS - When evaluating Arnold “Junior” Spirit from Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Jin Wang from Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, similarities radiate in both characters as their disparity in race deem the two of them as outcasts in the entirety of society. In addition to their lack of social interactions, their uniformity in their impulsive decisions cost them each a dear friend. Although Junior and Jin are quite similar, they share differences in the way Junior tries bettering himself by fitting into both his Indian and Reardan culture whereas Jin changes himself in every possible way to become Americanized.
The historical fiction Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is an almost quintessential illustration of the idea that love can exist anywhere without parameters. Clearly, this idea is seen with the relationship between Henry Lee, a Chinese American boy residing in Seattle, and Keiko Okabe, a Japanese American girl who falls victim to the atrocious Japanese American internment policy put forth by the United States government during World War 2. Despite the clashes and deep-seated hatred both of their Old World cultures had for one another, Henry and Keiko developed a relationship that transgressed such feelings of animosity. As the plot of the novel progresses, it becomes apparent to the audience that certain items are pivotal when influencing the course of the novel. Without these significant aspects in play, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet most likely would have taken a route disparate from the original course of the novel. Let us scrutinize these items so that we may better understand their vital importance to the story line.
The book describes a Chinese-American boy named Henry Lee who falls in love with Keiko, a Japanese-American girl and because of the war they have been separated. During this process of Henry trying to see Keiko, there are so many obstacles in his way such as Henry’s father and relocations. Moreover, Henry has seen witnessed
We are constantly being judged on the basis of our ethnicity, gender, and occupation. As a result, many people feel misunderstood by the expectations and stigmas branded on them. From gender discrimination to racial segregation, many forms of social injustice existed throughout the course of history. Up until today, we still encounter various forms of discrimination and social injustices on a day-to-day basis. The portrait, A Waitress at Duval’s Restaurant, 1875 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and poem, “The Waitress” by Billy Collins reflect the struggles and expectations of women during the late 19th century. In the portrait, we see a waitress with a dazed expression posing with her hand on the hip. When paired with the poem, which reveals the
As I go to sleep, I dream of a place where everyone is treated equally and not judged by their race or culture. As I wake up the next morning I tell myself, “Life being treated equally… What is that?” For years racism has been around, When will it ever stop? We the people are tired of seeing innocent black lives on the news being shot up by police officers for looking “suspicious”. If the law does not seem to notice how big of a problem racism is becoming, One suggestion that I would give them is that they should take their time to read “Room For Rent”, By Richie Narvaez. After reading that story, it will give you a better view on how racism is a huge problem. While I was reading this story, it made me more interested to find out if this is really happening or is it just a myth. It makes me wonder if people actually face these ethnicity problems.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel trails a variety of elderly citizens that travel to India for an assortment of reasons. Sonny is the manager and dreamer for the rundown hotel. His plans for the hotel are glamorous, but he is having trouble creating them. His mother does not approve of his girlfriend or envisaging philosophy for the hotel; yet Sonny still pursues his idea for getting guests to stay. The advertisement is for travel expenses and a long-term hotel stay for a very low price. On the pamphlet the hotel is stunning and glamorous. However when he welcomes the guests to the rundown hotel, it is not what the guests expected. Each individual has a different reaction, but Jean has the opinion filled with the most animosity.
Henry's father works very hard and persistently to pay for his son's freedom from slavery. Henry's owner, a white man named Robbins, doesn't seem to consider the bond between parent and child in this situation and merely sees Henry as his property to be bought and sold. It is not until Henry becomes a free man and ultimately decides to gain power and status by owning slaves of his own that Robbins sees him as a fellow man. All the while Henry remains true to himself and his color certainly does not change, it is only his status in society that gives him a sense of equality among men. The little importance of skin color is also blatantly obvious upon viewing the relationship between father and child as portrayed in the novel. Robbins, even though he does not announce it, has two mixed children of his own that were the result of an affair with a former slave as well as a white daughter that he has with his wife. The mixed children receive no less love from Robbins due to their color and perhaps are even treated better in response to Robbins undeniable love for their mother. No matter how loving and tender he shows to be with his former-slave turned lover and their children, Robbins is still shown to be a cruel and uncaring master to his slaves. Color, therefore, is not the deciding factor when it comes to how you are treated; all is determined by
For this assignment according to professor Noh I suppose to examine examples of multiculturalism and polyculturalism from the novel “I Hotel” by Karen Tei Yamashita. For the examples I present in this essay I am going to explain why and how these are examples of multiculturalism or polyculturalism. Also, I am going to explain how the novel presents a new form of identification and how the examples of polyculturalism are related to such a new form of identification. Let start with a little of background of I Hotel: A Novel, according to professor Noh this Novel consists of ten novellas. Each novella introduces interesting stories of various social and ethnic movements, comprised of diverse participants, such as Asian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans, Russian immigrants, college students, factory workers, intellectuals, etc., which orbit around a shelter in San Francisco for new immigrants and low income working class people of color, called the I Hotel. Based on then years of research and over 100 interviews with real people who were involved in the multi ethnic political movements, Yamashita seeks to illustrate people’s struggles to create strong political grounds for “hyphenated Americans,” as well as their frustrations toward the bureaucratization of ethnic identification as a tool for dividing people. In particular, Yamashita represents this period of civil rights movements as linked to the critiques of capitalism and solidarity along class
This proposal provides blueprint to any business that tries to take over other business in International market by providing importance of cultural adaption especially Guanxi or connections in Chinese Market by providing an example of how Hotel international failed in building Roaring Dragon Hotel reputation back by ignoring the importance of cultural adaption (Guanxi Connections in this case). In addition, business should implement new methodologies considering existing methodologies unlike redundancy of employees with Guanxi connections losing its base on which the company is built.
Cindy is the director of human resources. She has been a working member of the