We finally finished Lolita. It wasn’t my favorite literature, but it was not bad. We get to see how the relationship between Humbert and Lolita end. I honestly thought it was going to end differently because of the narrator’s actions in the story.

“Carmencita, lui demandais-je. . .’One last word,’ I said in my horrible careful English, ‘are you quite, quite sure that-well, not tomorrow, of course, and not after tomorrow, but-well-some day, any day, will you come live with me? I will create a brand new God and thank him with piercing cries, if you give me that microscopic hope” (to that effect). ‘No,’ she said smiling, ‘no.’ ‘It would have made all the difference,’ said Humbert Humbert. Then I pulled out my automatic-I mean, this is the kind of fool thing a reader might suppose I did. It never occurred to me to do it. ‘Good by-aye!’ she chanted, my American sweet immortal dead love; for she is dead and immortal if you are reading this. I mean, such is the formal agreement with the so-called authorities. Then, as I drove away, I heard her shout in a vibrant voice to her Dick; and the dog started to lope alongside my car like a fat dolphin, but he was too heavy and old, and very soon gave up. And presently I was driving through the drizzle of the dying day, with the windshield wipers in full action but unable to cope with my tears.” (280) Again Humbert addresses the reader when he says he pulled out his automatic. Before i read the next part I thought he was going to shoot Lolita, and he was going to end up on trial for shooting her, but then he says that’s what the reader thinks he did. This scene symbolizes his feelings in this moment of time. The way Humbert stumbles trying to say what he wants to say. The rain hitting the windshield and the dying day symbolize his sadness because Lolita is leaving him.

The beginning of part 2 starts with Humbert and Lolita traveling across the country. At first it confused me on how the setting just changed, but it makes sense since this is like a new act to the story.

The part that caught me was, “My chere Dolores! I want to protect you, dear, from all the horrors that happen to little girls in coal sheds and alley ways, and, alas, comme vous le saves trop bien, ma gentille, in the blueberry woods during the bluest summers. Through thick and thin I will still stay your guardian, and if you are good, I hope a court may legalize that guardianship before long. Let us, however, forget, Dolores Haze, so-called legal terminology, terminology that accepts as rational the term ‘lewd and lascivious cohabitation.’ I am not a criminal sexual psychopath taking indecent liberties with a child. The rapist was Charlie Holmes; I am the therapist-a matter of nice spacing in the way of distinction. I am your daddum, Lo. Look, I’ve a learned book here about young girls. Look, darling, what it says. I quote: the normal girl-normal, mark you the-normal girl is usually extremely anxious to please her father.” (149-150) This caught my attention quickly especially when he says he’s no criminal sexual psychopath and he wants to protect her. I know most children that age wouldn’t consider an adult trying to have sex with them as a protector. Maybe Lolita might think of that differently since she was drawing him on earlier in the story.

Where Humbert says, “Among Sicilians sexual relations between a father and daughter are accepted as a matter of course, and the girl who participates in such relationship is not looked upon with disapproval by the society which she is part.” (150) Humbert is a intelligent man, but it seems like he believes that nothing is wrong with what he is doing, and what he wants to do.

Yet again I look up a page full of vocabulary words, but there’s nothing wrong with that. This book can and will improve ones vocabulary. In this section of Lolita, the narrator Humbert finally meets Lolita.

He talks about fondling her on one immortal day. Yes he does sound like a creep, but you get to hear and understand why he is this way. “In the course of the sun-shot moment that my glance slithered over the kneeling child while I passed her in my adult disguise, the vacuum of my soul managed to suck in every detail of her bright beauty, and these I checked against the features of my dead bride.A little later, of course, she, this nouvelle, this Lolita, my Lolita, was to eclipse completely her prototype.”(39-40) This Shows why Humbert feels this way towards a twelve year old. It’s like he is stuck in his 13 year old self. The death of Annabel froze him in time, leaving him only attracted to little girls. He calls Lolita Annabel’s prototype. I thought this was interesting. Back during his younger years, he couldn’t find anyone who he was attracted to. nothing satisfied him. He told older women to act as if they were teenagers. Now when he is way older he sees this twelve year old who is a direct copy of his dead bride Annabel.

I have to admit that I had to look up a hand full of words from the text. It is a bit difficult to read compared to the other stories we’ve read during this semester. I had to reread some areas of the story. This book is interesting. It shows how someone views love. Of course love is common, but this is different. It’s not like a high school crush where every student in the school is in the same age group.

The main character is in love with Lolita. You can tell by the first thing you read, “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Le. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.”(9) Other than this sounding like a cheesy romantic line from a poem, this is a little creepy. The way this man feels towards someone so much younger than he is. The way he uses words to describe her is as if she is a grown woman who he has known all of his life. He compares her to a girl he loved names Annabel.