Lolita

picture of American society in the novel Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov

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It's not too good. While Charlotte Haze adores Humbert for being exotic, Humbert adores Lolita for, well sex.Humbert feels America is void of culture, art, history. This is, partly, his justification for taking Lolita on an extended road trip. He interchanges reverence for beauty with sex (with a minor).Clare Quilty is kind of like Humbert's shadow. Clare is a child pornographer; he is symbolic of an America that is base and exploitive. The parent child relationship (Lolita and her mother)is represented as part of the sad breakdown of the American "family".I think, in the end, this is a sad story and says more about human sickness and tragedy as id does about American culture.