High Expectations In Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet By Jamie Ford

“High expectations are the key to everything.” This quote by Sam Walton, who claims how expectations tend to inspire and motivate us to achieve higher goals in life and nobody else can prevent it from doing it if we have the desire to do it. Every parent has had expectations and goals for their children that play a huge role in their life in shaping a better opportunity and future. In the novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, he describes how Henry’s father has a lot of expectations for his son, how he wants him to go to all-white school as a scholar student, to become like an American person. These expectations create a lot of conflicts with their relationship with each other and sometimes high expectations from parents

can make them disappointed by our actions when the expectations are not met. It is expected to show that his father’s expectations for his son often create a lot of complications with each other because he does not want to do what his father wants him to do. In comparison, my mother has a lot of expectations from me for following the family rules. While there are a lot of things that parents expect for their children, parents are making these sacrifices for their children to have a better future; however, the expectations parents hold over their children lead to judgments over who they associate with, which damages relationships and also leads to disappointment when the inability to follow family rules and language barriers become more prevalent.
Parents have so many expectations for their children which they expect us to fulfill such as following cultural tradition. However, it also tends to create a lot of conflicts between their relationships which makes it harder to live up to parents’ expectations, this is one of the main consequences that children are facing in today’s world. For example, in Jamie Ford novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, when Mr. Lee sees photos of Japanese families he get so angry that he says to Henry, “I do this for you. A top white school. And what happens? Instead of studying you’re making eyes with this Japanese girl. Japanese! She’s a daughter of the butchers of my people. Your people. Their blood is on her! She stinks of that blood!” (183). This quote explains how Mr. Lee wants Henry to follow Chinese culture. Henry’s father is very shocked with Henry for keeping the Japanese girl album at his house which makes him think that he is supporting the enemy. It shows how there is no way that Mr. Lee will approve of Keiko because Henry’s father says she is not Chinese, she is Japanese. Henry’s father mentions how this is absolutely unacceptable according to Chinese tradition to marry outside their race. As a result, it will also lead to disagreements between parents and children when they do not follow their cultures traditions that are expected by their parents.
Henry’s father expectations on Henry created a lot of conflicts between their relationships. In the novel, Henry’s father tries to force Henry to do something that he does not want to do. For example, when Henry’s father found out about the album, he split it into two pieces and throw it outside the house, where his father pointed outside the door telling Henry, “If you walk out that door now, you are no longer part of your family. You are no longer Chinese” (185). This shows how it created a lot of complications between his parents when Henry goes out to pick Keiko’s family album. His father also says, if he does that he will not be part of his family anymore. Therefore, after the incident, his parents does not even talk to him for many years. The main reason why their relationship got worse is because Henry did not follow his father culture rules. He challenges his family causing him to be a shame. These conflicts can also be caused by not wanting to follow family rules.
Moreover, parents have expectations for their children is about following extreme family rules.

When our parents are trying to teach us these family rules, they have an optimistic purpose of trying to support us in some way to survive in the world, which they expect us to follow it. The main reason why parents have these expectations is because they want to help us learn these rules to see how it can have a positive behavior with others when talking to them and how to deal with angry people calmly instead of reacting to them the same way they did to us. For example, my mother always used to tell me “Never talk back to your family.” This is one of the biggest rules that needs to be followed up in my family because in India parents always teach their children not to say anything back when someone eldest is trying to talk to you. . In India, talking back to your family is very disrespectful behavior. It creates a lot of problems between family members where they argue and shout at each other for saying things which they should not have said it to the eldest member of the family. This shows how our parents have these expectations on us is because they do not want us to disrespect their elders, they want to us respect everyone and do not say things that might hurt someone’s feeling. Therefore, they want us to have a positive behavior towards everyone and treat everyone the same with respect. Following family rules can also create consequences with family members and parents. If

we do not follow family rules, it might create a rift between family members because it is unfair to others who are following the same rules in the family. It might lead to some argument and disagreement between them for not following the rules that is equally made for everyone in the family. This illustrates how it can also guide to difference between family members when they don’t do what they are expected to do.
As an example, speaking a different language can play a huge role in parenting expectations. Speaking different language can be very beneficial is many ways because it helps us to communicate with people easily from different part of the world, especially for students when they go to a new school in a new country. For instance, in the novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry explains how his parents want him to speak only English, “They asked—no, told—him to stop speaking their native Chinese. It was 1942, and they were desperate for him to learn English” (12). This quote explains how his father wants Henry to be so much like American where most of the people only speak English and he was forced to break up the regular communication that henry had with both his parents every day. They want him to speak English so he can be accepted into the all-white school. Therefore, henry was forced to speak English, he was not allowed to speak Cantonese to his parents. This makes henry feel disconnected with his parents because of the lack of communication they have with each other. The reason they have these expectations is because parents want their child to get the best out of life, as they do not want their children to suffer through the same things they went through in their life. They want their children to have more opportunities than before. However, it does created disconnection between them.
These expectations sometimes have a tendency to form a lot of problems between family members.

The conflict that speaking another language has caused in Henry’s family is disconnection between henry and his father. The reason is that henry was not allowed to talk to his parents in Cantonese at home, he is struggling to express (denote) himself to his parents because they won’t understand English, so there is no other way that he can communicate with them. The only possible way they are able to have communication with each other is by head motions, which is hard to communicate. This created separation between him and his parents where he does not talk to his parents for many years because he is not able to speak at home, nobody will understand what he has said in English. This formed gap ability to talk to his parents at home where he is not able to share

anything.
In conclusion, parent’s expectations are a very huge part of children’s lives because the way they expect us to live upon their expectations, which causes many of disagreement between their parents, when children are not able to fulfill it. This might have a big impact on their lives which might lead to disconnection or separation between their parents because of not following their cultural tradition, not following family rules and not understanding the language they are speaking. Each of these different expectation techniques they are expecting from their children is influencing their outcomes through many pathways. Every parent have these expectations for their children because they tries to do their best to give them opportunities which they couldn’t have it and support them to have a bright future.