Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet Quotes

People choose what kind of person they want to be: kind, generous, rude, accepting, loving, hateful, etc. Even though these traits are chosen and acted out through free will, other people can affect how someone is shaped. In the novel Hotel on the corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford the main character named Henry Lee is greatly affected by his relationships with other characters. The relationships between Henry and his father, Henry and Marty, and Henry and Keiko helped shape his life tremendously. Henry and his father always had a rough relationship, but the relationship worsened when Henry was a pre-teen going into his teenage years. “Young Henry Lee stopped talking to his parents when he was twelve years old. Not
This greatly dampened his relationship with his son. Furthermore, Henry’s wife Ethel passed away due to cancer not long before the reopening of the Panama Hotel. Ethel was described as the “glue” that held Marty and Henry together, and now that she was gone it made it hard for the two to relate to the other. They visited each other every so often but they did not share personal things. For instance, when Marty introduced his girlfriend Samantha, he did not tell his father about her until they were engaged. Henry met Samantha shortly after Marty told him the good news. “‘Dad, I’m engaged.’ ‘To a girl?’ Henry asked the question in all seriousness. Marty laughed. ‘Of course to a girl.’ ‘And you’re scared to tell me this.’ . . . ‘Then why are we talking out here?’ ‘Because she’s inside, Pops. I want you to meet her.’” (80-81). Due to Henry’s parents not showing affection to him, it was hard for Henry to show Marty affection. This affected the relationship greatly and caused distance between the father and son. Having Marty as a son helped shape Henry into a father and pushed him to do things that he is not used to, like showing