Lolita

Lolita was a very intense read; it’s not that the literature was above my abilities but the story of tainted love ruining a man’s life almost seemed too contrived for shock value. Humbert is a character that becomes easily transfixed with love or rather infatuation with younger girls and his description of the need and want to be with them seems almost creepy, which I suppose could be a prelude to the deaths to come. The girls, or nymphets as he calls them tempt him in a way that is hard to resist and Humbert knows that wanting them is wrong but he can’t seem to help it.

It never seems to be Humbert’s fault when something occurs but rather the blame is directed to another person, most often a woman. I feel like the gist of this novel is Humbert blaming the women in his life for the misfortunes he suffers. His mother passes away when he is very young, from all things she dies from being struck by lightning. He uses her death as an excuse to behave the way he does, he doesn’t feel as if he needs to be moral since he was never taught right from wrong. His mother’s sister, his aunt attempted at rasing him but once again the blame and wrongdoings that he does, he justifies because he never received the loving he deserved.

In class the discussion of love came up briefly and I argued that what Humbert is experiencing is infatuation not love. Why else would he tire of Annabel or other young girls… once they grow past their prepubescent stage he needs to find the newest thing. Out of all of his relationships, his desire for Lolita lasted the longest and the fact that he could not obtain the goal of having her made it even harder for him to find a new love. He grew obsessed over somethi g he could not truly have. He definitely seems to be blaming women for something he cannot posses, love.

At the beginning of Lolita, in the forward John Ray Jr says, " “Lolita” should make all of us—parents, social workers, educators—apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task of bringing up a better generation in a safer world.

" I chose this quote to discuss because of it's utter ridiculousness... after learning that there is no John Ray Jr this statement doesn't seem like a warning but rather another excuse. I also receive the feeling that this quote was written to reassure that there is a moral to this story. Or at best, the story could be justified. And if anything the novel was written more poetically and for love than for a psychologist.