Theme Of Conflict In Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet

Edgar Allen Poe, a brilliant author, once said, “Years of love have been forgot, In the hatred of a minute.” In the novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford, several characters encounter this type of conflict, specifically the main character Henry. Throughout the novel, several conflicts occur, and the time frame of the setting emphasizes these conflicts. This novel takes place during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which was an attack by the Japanese. This is significant to the book because Henry is a Chinese boy in love with a Japanese girl named Keiko. Not only are there conflicts between Keiko and Henry, but also Henry and his father, and Henry and his son, Marty. Within the novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford, there are several conflicts between characters which the setting aids in shaping Henry into the man he is by the end. An illustration of this would be the relationship between Henry and his father. Henry’s father helps further shape Henry as a character throughout the novel using conflict. Without Henry’s father’s accustomed Chinese beliefs, Henry may have never liked jazz or became so infatuated with a Japanese girl named Keiko. Mainly, he liked these activities because they were different from his father’s traditional views. Throughout the novel their relationship never recovered; in fact, it only became worse. The relationship between Henry and his father never improved because they never communicated, nor