The Theme Of Loss Of Innocence In Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet

Maturity is one of the most important parts of human life. Maturity begins developing during the adolescence of a child and progresses all the way until a person becomes an elderly sage. Maturity is an important part of any bildungsroman, or better known as a coming-of-age novel. Jamie Ford’s novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet tells the bittersweet story of two misfits in wartime: Henry, a Chinese-American boy, and Keiko, a Japanese-American girl. It follows their time together and Henry’s future without Keiko. After the death of his wife, Ethel, older Henry comes across the Panama Hotel and it sparks memories of the WWII period and of his first love, Keiko. Back in the 1940s when Henry was younger, the Bombing of Pearl Harbor

Loss of innocence is an important part of growing up and is an important part of a bildungsroman piece of literature. After Henry and Keiko sneak into Oscar Holden’s club, the pair are faced with a dilemma when FBI agents broke in and “...short, piercing barrels pointed directly at his [Henry’s] smallish twelve-year-old frame as he broke his paralysis to step in front of Keiko…” (Ford 57). Henry, having a gun pointing at his head, learns that during war, know one is protected and even the innocent can be victims, as shown when he was almost shot for making the slightest movement. This scene opens Henry’s eyes to what is actually going on around him. Later on, after Henry sneaks into Camp Harmony to see Keiko for a final time and his father finds out of his friendship with Keiko, his father says “Saang jan” meaning “You are a stranger to me” after his father has a stroke (207). Henry hearing this, realizes that his already shaky relationship with his father would never be the same again; especially since he would never let go of his friendship with Keiko, even for his parents. Because of his father’s isolation from him, Henry grows up to not knowing how to react to his son like his father leading to Marty being nervous to tell Henry about Samantha. Although Keiko promises to write back to Henry, Henry went to the post office only to hear the clerk, later identified as Ethel say, “I’m sorry, Henry. No

After finding out that Keiko was being sent to a camp with the rest of the Japanese-American community, is distraught; even more so when he finds out he can not stop Keiko from going and tells his long-time companion Sheldon, “I let her go” (210). Sheldon quickly denies the adolescent; however, Henry learns that he can not do everything even if he wants to. By learning this, Henry becomes aware of the boundaries he can not cross - especially as a child living during a period of cold-blooded war. After receiving a letter from Keiko without seeing a single word from her for three weeks, Henry realises that “...time apart has a way of creating distance...the kind that makes you ache and stop wondering. Longing so bad that it begins to hurt to care so much” (245). Now aware how hard it is to keep long-distance relationships, Henry begins to feel a rift between him and Keiko - the same kind he has with his father, one that hurts to think about and full of despair. By realizing this, Henry is becoming mature and knowing that for a relationship to work, you have to stay close to the person - resulting in him only meeting with Keiko several years in the future after the two live their own lives with different people. Not hearing from Keiko for months, Henry decides to move on by dating Ethel Chen, the clerk from the post office he visits every day; however, he would still “think of her