I Hotel By Karen Tei Yamashita Analysis

MID-TERM PAPER

Part 1:

Resist (1967-1974)

During the Asian American Movement, Asian American literature was more of a tool for the movement. Writers during that time would write so that the movement can get start and kept going. This was also the time when the term Asian American was being defined (Yellow Power). The word resist is how I would describe Asian American Literature, since The Asian American Movement is a cause to resist the unjustly things that was done to Asian Americans. Resist is to

Preserve (1974-1989)

At the time of Aiiieeeee!, Asian American Literature become more focused on creating writings that would be relevant in the future, not just during that time. The majority of literature being written during this time are mostly

The stories of I Hotel are very much like that of the Asian American Movement. The structure of the book is also written like a documentary portraying what happened. For example, on chapter 3 (Yamashita 36-50), the paragraph structure changed, from a narrative style to an interview. The first part of the book, 1968: Eye Hotel tells the story of Paul, a college Chinese American who lives in Chinatown Los Angeles, and his involvement in the Asian American movement within his college along with his mentor Chen and his friend Edmund. On page 29, Paul attends the Japanese American Citizens League banquet to protest. During the protest, Paul takes notes and gives them to Edmund so that he could write about it. Literature was one of the key part of the Asian American Movement. It was used to invoke the what the people think and feel about things. We see here that Paul and Edmund uses literature to show

This part of the book is structured like a script more than a narrative. On pages 128 to 135 we see that students who are of Asian descent are gathered to listen to a white professor lecture about Japanese psychology. The student asked many questions, such as about the stereotypes that Japanese and Japanese Americans are the same. Things got out of hand and it turned into a protest. Here we see the students speak out their voice, trying to resist the stereotypes directed at them. Starting on page 166 the scripted focused more on two characters, Aiko and Nelson. Aiko hides Nelson with in their Japanese community from the authority who are trying to find him. Nelson lives as half Japanese in the community to avoid authority. Again, the theme resist is present