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Marty Lee (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 narrative jumps backward in time. Henry is twelve years old, and his parents have forbidden him from speaking Cantonese to them, wanting him to improve his English. On this day at breakfast, Henry’s father has just pinned a button reading “I Am Chinese” on his son’s school shirt. Henry, confused, asks: “If I’m not supposed to speak Chinese, why do I need to wear this button?” Because neither Henry’s father nor his mother speaks enough English to understand this question, Henry leaves for school without another word.
Henry’s father is introduced as a domineering force in young Henry’s life. His refusal to explain why he is forcing Henry to wear the button epitomizes the lack of communication between father and son. Henry’s father’s silence will eat away at the already-strained relationship he has with his son over the course of the novel, eventually culminating in Henry’s father being physically unable to speak due to a series of strokes. Henry’s musing about why he needs to wear the button while he has, at the same time, been banned by his father from speaking Chinese at home speaks to the complexity of negotiating a double identity (in Henry’s case, being Chinese American).
Themes
Henry makes his way to school in the opposite direction of the other Chinese American kids his age, who all attend Chinese school. Henry attends the all-white Rainier Elementary; Henry’s father and mother like to brag that their son is at school “scholarshipping,” the only sentence they say in English.
As Henry heads to school, many of the Chinese American students his age hurl insults at him, including “baak gwai” or “white devil.” This brief moment—an almost daily occurrence in young Henry’s life—shows how painfully isolating life can be as a first-generation American. Henry is rejected by his Chinese American peers for being too white, and by his white American peers for being too Chinese.
Themes
Henry stops halfway to school to give his lunch to his friend Sheldon Thomas, a black street musician who plays jazz on his saxophone. Henry has made this a pattern, since a bully named Chaz Preston always beats Henry and steals his lunch if he brings it with him to school. In exchange for the lunch, Sheldon always gives Henry a nickel from his music profits, which Henry uses to buy a starfire lily for his mother once a week.
Henry’s love for his mother (and hers for him) shines through in this passage. Henry’s mother deliberately packs “an American lunch” for her son each week. Henry appreciates this because it makes him feel like he stands out less at school; thus, he feels guilty not eating the lunch his mother has carefully prepared. His gift of the weekly starfire lily symbolizes the love that Henry and his mother share, as bruised and imperfect as it is.
Themes
Sheldon comments on Henry’s “I Am Chinese” button, saying: “That’s a darn good idea, what with Pearl Harbor and all.” Henry grumblingly explains that the button was his father’s idea—his father, who hates the Japanese for bombing his native China for the past four years. He also thinks ahead to his day at school, where he will spend his lunch period working in the cafeteria under the grouchy eye of Mrs. Beatty, the cafeteria manager. As always, he will miss recess to eat canned peaches for lunch, alone in the storage room.
Sheldon’s comment provides important historical context about Henry’s button. Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States was inflamed by the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. By forcing his son to wear the button proclaiming his identity, Henry’s father is hoping to shield Henry from this xenophobia. At the same time, Henry’s father exhibits bigotry of his own against Japanese people; forcing Henry to wear the button is also Henry’s father’s way of actively disclaiming any association with a group of people he has always hated. This passage thus shows that bigotry exists in nonwhite, as well as white, American communities, and that it is corrosive no matter who is practicing it.
Themes
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