Bitter And Sweet Themes

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, is a fiction novel of historic proportions. This novel focuses mainly on a boy named Henry Lee, who grew up surrounded by prejudice in an international district, even within his own family. He was a first-generation American. Along with Henry, we meet a Japanese girl named Keiko. This book tells us these two friend’s story. Including how hard it was for the both of them when Keiko and her family were sent away by the government to internment camps for the Japanese people. Ford’s novel shows us the effects that being prejudiced against had on, not only the Japanese, but Americans and people from other nations as well. Throughout the novel, though at first they seem rewarded, Ford gives consequences

His father states, “If you walk out that door-if you walk out that door now, you are no longer a part of this family. You are no longer Chinese. You are not a part of us anymore. Not a part of me.” (Ford 185). His father basically tells him that he can stay and completely forget about Keiko, or he can leave and never again be known as a part of his family. Henry leaves telling his father that he is an American. Jumping back to earlier in the novel, Ford makes the process of Henry opening himself up to Keiko a slow one, as if Henry finds it hard to make friends or trust other people. Henry and Keiko do not become friends right away because Ford wants the relationship to be believable. Both children are going to a school that is full of children, who are mostly white Americans, and they both work at the kitchen within the school. So although the book ends with a love story ending I felt that it was a very good and truly fascinating read. It also reminds us of how things were for the Japanese people, who lived in America during the war back in the 40’s. This novel warns us not to treat anyone who may be a bit different than we are as badly as the Japanese were treated back