Nabokov

A central element of Lolita is the unreliable nature of Humbert Humbert’s narration. Every event of the novel is manipulated by Humbert in order to serve his ultimate goal of eliciting sympathy from his audience. This is especially apparent in the way Humbert characterizes Lolita. He sexualizes her and makes her culpable in her own rape and abuse in order to shift the blame from the perpetrator of the crime, him. So that leaves readers with the question, who is the real Lolita? Is Lolita really the

Taking Flight I sit in this AP Language and Composition class trying to decipher the essence of the unending annotations and floods of random texts for the past quarter. Little did I know that I would be taking flight and soaring through the smallest details and threads of literary devices and techniques of analyzing language. Before this class, I looked at a book, aware that it was filled with potential symbolism and crucial themes that were definitely worth considering. Yet, I often paid far

Eroticism is also created from the sexualization of girlhood, leading to the desires of older men (Kehily, 2012). The most notorious example of girlhood eroticism is the creation of the Lolita. The concept of the Lolita was created by author Vladimir Nabokov in his novel Lolita, a story about an older man whose obsession of a 12 year-old girls causes him to fantasize, lust, and eventually “groom” her into having an affair. This aided in the development of eroticism where girls can “appear simultaneously

The Many Personalities of Lolita and Humbert in Nabokov’s Lolita Although they are intimately involved, the title character of Nabokov's Lolita never fully reveals her true self to Humbert. Likewise, Humbert pours his physical love into Lolita, but he never reveals to his stepdaughter a self that is separate from his obsession with her. These two characters mask large parts of their personalities from each other and the rest of the world, creating different images and personas in regard to

There is a town in Texas called Lolita; and in 1959, its people were enraged and embattled by the publication of “Lolita”, by Vladimir Nabokov. The name of their town now connoted rape, not patriotism, as it was originally named after a patriot’s daughter. But the people of this town decided to wait it out, as they figured the book’s popularity would have to lose steam eventually (Wells). This, of course, is taking a lot longer than anyone expected. The book Lolita, widely considered a classic and

Eric Goldman argues that while Humbert attempt to make Lolita into a sexual deviant that corrupted him, Nabokov instead, suggest that she is a normal female that is experimenting with her sexuality. He starts with explaining Humbert attempting to make Lolita in a sexual deviant, then he states that after its publication “many of the critics Humbert Humbert’s misogynistic interpretation of Lolita” (Goldman 87). Goldman believe that Lolita “sexual development is warped by a maniacal, myth-making pedophile”

I sit in this AP Language and Composition class trying to decipher the essence of the unending annotations and floods of random texts for the past quarter. Little did I know that I would be taking flight and soaring through the smallest details and threads of literary devices and techniques of analyzing language. Before this class, I looked at a book, aware that it was filled with potential symbolism and crucial themes that were definitely worth considering. Yet, I often paid far less attention to

Humbert's Description of Lolita       In Chapter 31 of Part 1 of Lolita, Humbert and Lolita are in the lobby of the Enchanted Hunters only hours after consummating their sexual relationship. As Humbert arrives in the lobby to check out of the hotel, he observes Lolita as she sits reading a movie magazine in a large armchair, and his description of her progresses from a focus on her loss of innocence to a focus on her inner, demonic nature. As elsewhere in the novel, the reader here sees

Dolores Haze, or as we know her, Lolita, is what known as a nymphet. A nymphet is an “attractive and sexually mature young girl.” Nymphets are what Humbert Humbert desires and wants control over. Through artful alliteration, Vladimir Nabokov disguises the power struggle of sex and love and abuse between a twelve-year-old girl and forty-year-old man. In this essay, I will analyze the ways that Humbert Humbert uses his agency to control Dolores Haze and how she uses what little agency she has to control

I. Question/Issue Throughout the course of the novel, Nabokov mentions and references the theme of love, specifically when he recalls on Humbert’s feelings toward Lolita. As the narrator of the story, Humbert uses love as a willful and tenacious justification for his pedophilic tendencies toward nymphets like Lolita. As Lolita is only a young, undeveloped, and immature child, Humbert’s desire for Lolita is not only unreasonable and awkward, but also psychologically and physically obsessive; he is