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The Basement (1986)
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
The morning after the raid at the Black Elks Club, Henry wakes to find his father reading a newspaper article about the arrests of countless local Japanese people. Henry’s father triumphantly announces that President Roosevelt has just signed a new executive order creating the War Relocation Authority. Combined with a previous executive order allowing the federal government power to designate any area of the country a military area, this means that the government can make arrests of anyone it wants. Henry’s father is thrilled that the Japanese will be targeted, but Henry’s mother is confused. “They can’t take them all away,” she says. “What will happen to the strawberry farms on Vashon Island and the sawmill on Bainbridge?” Henry is horrified by this news and leaves for school without a word.
Henry’s father gloats over the government’s decision to “relocate” Japanese Americans. Yet again, this is a moment that emphasizes how bigotry is alive in nonwhite as well as white American communities. Another reason this scene is noteworthy is because it suggests that Henry’s mother is a more empathetic, less bitter person than Henry’s father. However, because of the literal and emotional silence that dominates the Lee household, Henry is unable to connect with his mother over her innate tenderness.
Themes
Henry walks to school past Sheldon’s old corner. Sheldon now has a permanent gig at the Black Elks Club, and Henry misses the sense of protection his friend gave him from school bullies. At school, Henry learns that the father of one of his classmates, Will Whitworth, was killed by Japanese dive bombers while serving at sea. Henry feels sorry for Will, even though Will once beat him. “Fathers weren’t perfect,” Henry thinks, “but even a bad one seemed better than no father at all.”
Will’s story reveals that Henry does, in fact, feel a degree of love for his father, as flawed a man as he is. Additionally, this passage implicitly illustrates the difference between Henry and his father. Whereas Henry’s father hates all Japanese Americans due to the fact that Japan has long been at war with his native China, Henry is capable of feeling sympathy even for someone who has directly wronged him.
Themes
At lunch, Henry heads to the cafeteria but Keiko isn’t there. Instead, Mrs. Beatty tells him, he’ll be working alongside Denny Brown, who was caught stealing from the school’s store and is working in the cafeteria as punishment. When Henry and Denny begin serving lunch, Henry notices that his white classmates want Denny to serve them; “To them, we’re at war and I’m the enemy,” Henry realizes. Henry leaves school early and heads toward Nihonmachi, noticing smoke rising in the distance.
Despite the fact that China was allied with the United States during World War II, Henry’s classmates persist in viewing him as their enemy. This underscores the fact that white Americans’ xenophobia is race-based; Henry’s classmates hate him because he is not white. This suggests that society’s (and the government’s) anti-Japanese feeling at the time was also based in racism, rather than in a rational concern for the safety of American citizens.
Themes
