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V-J Day (1945)
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Belonging, Bigotry, and Identity
Silence vs. Communication
Family Dynamics and Inheritance
Memory
Love and Self-Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
Henry hasn’t heard from Marty in a week, so he decides to visit Marty’s dorm for the first time since Ethel died. In Marty’s room, Keiko’s sketchbooks are spread out on the desk, but Henry finds he can’t bring himself to talk about Keiko in front of his son. Marty apologizes for Samantha’s insistence at dinner that Henry look for Keiko. Henry assures his son that it is okay. “I had my chance,” he says. “She was taken from you,” Marty says bitterly, but Henry interrupts: “She left,” Henry says. “But I also let her go.” Henry feels himself “retiring from a lifetime of wanting.” “[It’s] like that broken record we found,” Henry tells Marty. “Some things just can’t be fixed.”
In his conversation with Marty, Henry can be seen clearly succumbing to despair. It is less painful for him to continue convincing himself that Keiko is lost to him forever than it is to risk the possibility of searching for her and losing her all over again. Forgetting Keiko might have been the best choice for Henry (and Ethel and Marty) while he was married, but at only 56 Henry’s lifetime is far from over. It seems, then, that there is no reason his wanting should be arbitrarily ended either.
Themes
