To have a good story, there must be good characters. Characters help the reader relate to the plot and struggle of the story, as well as creating a picture of the scenes on each page. But what exactly makes a character? What defines their personalities and relatableness to the reader? The way a character thinks, acts, and views the world are influenced, much like in the real world, by the people and places around them. In essence, they are ideas that are forged and refined by the author and other supporting aspects of the story into the living, breathing lenses through which we view the story. In the case of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, Henry is our window into the world of wartime Seattle. Through him, we can view …show more content…
He didn’t know any other way of parenting besides the cold, divisive parenting he received from his father. Because of this, a rift formed between Henry and his only son Marty, much like the one that existed between Henry and his father. Now, with the recent passing of Henry’s wife Ethel, the void between them has re-emerged and it is larger and more pronounced than ever. This is due to the fact that Ethel was the glue that filled in the cracks and crevices between Henry and Marty, but with her gone Henry and Marty fight and argue more than ever. “Henry could see the confusion in his son’s eyes, more like shock really. Marty had grown up all these years assuming Henry was like his grandfather” (Ford 105). Because of the disconnection between Henry and Marty, Marty had never really, truly known his father. All he knew was that his grandfather was a close-minded, zealous nationalist. He would’ve seen some of his grandfather’s behaviors reflected in Henry who despite his best efforts, turned out quite a bit like his father. In Marty’s eyes, his father is like a mysterious shadow. Someone who was always present in his life, but never emerging from the background. Everything Marty knows about Henry and his childhood were told to him by his mother Ethel, not by Henry himself. This lack of a friend or someone to talk to causes Marty to find someone he loves in a strange woman of a different race. This is the same exact situation Henry found himself in when he was chased away from his parents and found a friend with the “enemy” a Japanese girl named Keiko
Henry was an extremely lonely nine-year-old boy whose greatest wish was to get a dog. His parents were busy with their work most of the time and it seemed that Henry did not have any friends, perhaps because they moved so often. A dog would have provided Henry with unconditional love - something in short supply around his house - and would have been the perfect companion. The problem was, his parents did not want dog, which would have been another obligation and something else to take care of. As emotionally detached as his parents were, something else to take care of was just not desirable.
Characters that have different aspect are far more interesting to read about than average characters. Callum Roe, who is the main character in the story seems to base his personality and his actions off his past events, this makes him a very interesting protagonist for an Adventure novel such as The Darkest Path. For instance the relationship Callum shares with his family. Callum has a very strong bond with his brother, James. Everything Callum does reflects back to the moments with his brother and their family. Callum has a very loving personality, it's very interesting to see how he can still find love when the whole nation is at war and him and his family are split from each other. It's important that stories have characters like Callum.
Henry is from a long line of rich, white Americans who were always upstanding citizens in the community. His family was well respected in everything that they did. On the other hand, Chay’s family is a Cambodian refugee family who came to America in search of a better life. The Cambodians never were treated well, and they all lived in a separate town called Merton. Chay’s family owned a business, but wasn’t really rich. Chay went to school with Henry’s brother, Franklin, who seemed to get into a lot of fights with Chay. Franklin taught Henry how to fight off Cambodians who would look at their sister Louisa in a bad way or touched her. That is the thoughts that Henry grew up to think towards Chay and all other
The author chose to do all of these things because they all are crucial to the story, and they help to make the book better. They make it more interesting, less confusing, and more professional. All of these elements were probably well planned and thought out because they are so important. I think that the characters make the story good or bad, and that’s the author’s job - to create the characters and the ideas and things like that, and that’s why we’re doing this project: to evaluate what the author has presented with these characteristics.
I chose to write about the narrator and his friends because I found there was more to them than just the bad guy persona they wanted everyone to see. I find the narrator and his friends are dynamic characters because in the end of the story they lets go of all his childish pretending and changes into the en they are supposed to be. “We were bad. We read Andre Gide and stuck elaborate poses to show we didn’t give a shit about anything.” (Boyle 529) This quote sums up that they have to...
...s inner self. What is seen as a relationship amongst these two young men is now torn apart by the transformation of Henry caused from his witnesses during warfare.
In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader has the experience to understand what it was like to live in an insane asylum during the 1960’s. Kesey shows the reader the world within the asylum of Portland Oregon and all the relationships and social standings that happen within it. The three major characters’ groups, Nurse Ratched, the Black Boys, and McMurphy show how their level of power effects how they are treated in the asylum. Nurse Ratched is the head of the ward and controls everything that goes on in it, as she has the highest authority in the ward and sabotages the patients with her daily rules and rituals. These rituals include her servants, the Black Boys, doing anything she tells them to do with the patients.
...r own “sweet” part in the most bitter of times by writing about the his personal experiences of discovering human kindness during the Vietnam War. The deepest moral of the novel is hope. He tries to send out a message that people will be able to endure anything if they can find hope. When the shock of Kiowa’s death shocked O’Brien, he found hope that things would get better and recovered to later honor his friend through writing and freeing his spirit. When Mitchell Sanders was stuck in living hell, he takes a second to notice how perfect nature was, despite the ongoing war, and understands that nature and life shall never cease existence and uses it to motivate himself. This revelation and positivity of all the joyous moments that are possible during war make this story easily relatable to any person of the “real world” that has had to endure anguish and suffering.
Henry was ten years old when she died, yet there is very little detail of her, especially compared to his father. Standing next to his mother’s deathbed, Park describes a faint memory of his mother. He says, “I don't remember what I saw in her room, maybe I never looked at her, though I can see so clearly the image of my father standing in the hall…” (Lee 63). This lack of intimacy and interaction is common in traditional Korean culture. This is also evident in his mother’s and father’s relationship since in their culture, women are subordinate to
Henry suffers from retrograde amnesia due to internal bleeding in the part of the brain that controls memory. This causes him to forget completely everything he ever learned. His entire life is forgotten and he has to basically relearn who he was, only to find he didn’t like who he was and that he didn’t want to be that person. He starts to pay more attention to his daughter and his wife and starts to spend more time with them.
I am going to start off nice and easy before I get to the more brain scrambling stuff. In the first movie Marty (Michael J. Fox) travels back in time and accidently takes the place of his father the first time him and Marty’s mother were supposed to meet. This causes a snowball effect, which rolls to them not getting married and then ultimately Marty not being born. In the movie, Marty’s mom Lorraine has a crush on him which leads him to spend the rest of the movie trying to get her attention off of him and back to George. This would mean that they had to spend a lot of time together. And even towards the end there is a scene where George and Lorraine thank him, which would imply that he was an important person in their lives. Now wi...
The love one has for their family causes one to do anything to keep them out of harm, including taking the role of mother/father. Henry Lawson creates an image in his readers’ mind of the protagonist and all that she does for her
First, the movie “Marty” gives insight into the various types of relationships that can develop between people. For example, the relationship between Marty and Claire is started because of one reason; they are in parallel situations with each other. In other words, they started their relationship based on the Attraction Theory, which explains that people start relationships and continue them because they are attracted to each other through the other person having great qualities and similar traits, whether physical or not. In the movie, Marty is attracted to Claire when she starts crying because her date left her at the party. In fact, when Marty is comforting Claire, she tells him that she does not have much luck with men and she has had heartbreak in the past with other r...
Henry’s father, a strict, war-obsessed man essentially dictates Henry’s life, distancing the two as Henry continues to oppose his father’s views. Because of his father’s controlling ways, there is little love to be lost between the father and son. This animosity between them can be seen when Henry is about to leave his apartment to retrieve the family photos of his Japanese friend Keiko. His father tells him that should Henry leave to help Keiko, he “[is] no longer part of this family” (Ford 185).
Henry’s character is introduced in the movie when his cousin Mark, who is just about the same age as him, suddenly comes to stay with their family because his father had to go away on business. Mark’s mother recently passed away right in front of his eyes and he was still dealing with the repercussions of it all. Dealing with feelings of loneliness, Mark immediately developed a close bond with Henry. He found Henry to be adventurous and nice but was not aware of who Henry really was and what he was experiencing. At first, Henry seemed like a decent young boy who enjoyed experimenting with new things. On ...