Good Lolita Book Review Essay Example

Lolita was written by Vladimir Nabokov back in 1955 and spread over the literary world like wildfire. The book was excellently written by its native Russian author and was later translated into the Russian language by Vladimir as well. The book has met with a lot of controversy as well as critical acclaim. The approach of the author was magnificent and certainly, very puzzling at times. His depiction of Lolita and Humbert is one that is seen as a 20th century master class by many. The book is narrated by a 38 year old literature professor who gets involved romantically with a 12 year old named Lolita. He begins to adore her day after day and gets frantically obsessed with the girl over a short period of time. In order to get close to Lolita, Humbert, the narrator and professor, decides to become Lolita’s stepfather and manages to do so in one way or the other. The 12 year old girl is namely Dolores Haze and once Humbert begins life as her stepfather, he becomes physically involved with Lolita and is sexually active with her, giving her the nickname, Lolita. Both the real name of the 12 year old and the nickname are Spanish in nature and origin. He then begins his various attempts at fooling readers with an intricate yet delicate piece of explanation towards Lolita and this becomes even more fascinating once he gets more obsessive on day after the other. The narrator manages to equate his sexual desires as fatherhood and pure love to the 12 year old whereas it is child abuse and extremely irrational.
After reading this book, I realize that it is a classic pornography that will bend the minds of every reader who comes across it. It is classic in the way that there are so many reviews and so many confused and shocking reactions on the readers’ face and mind after they are done reading this book. Some believe that the narrator was entrapped by the girl instead of the other way around while it is the narrator that actually goes forth and subdues Lolita as a piece of him and his obsession. Another reason why Lolita is pornographic is because of the various expressions in the book to describe sexual fantasies which can be unearthing at moments. The details that are provided in this book are of varying thoughts and lust.
There is a chapter where Humbert describes his entire sexual intercourse with Lolita, from the beginning to end, much like the way pornographic movies are made, detailing ever single piece of sexuality that occurs. The only difference between this book and actual pornography is that actual pornography has real and intricate visual graphics that entice a human being while this book, being malign and innocent in its cover page, details sexual activities to such an extent that the reader can imagine them in his mind over and over again, enticing him way more than an actual pornographic video would.
I don’t believe, like many others, that Humbert was manipulated and seduced by Lolita in any way. The girl was as innocent as any other and only caught the attention of Humbert because he was into children to begin with. Lolita never caught the idea of the bigger picture until humbert entered her life as a stepfather. That is when Lolita realized that things were about to change and what she had unintentionally done through her innocence.
On the other hand, Humbert was a professor of literature and knew exactly what he was doing. He wasn’t hypnotized or subdued. No, he was in full sense when he began a sexual relationship with Lolita, a girl who had never before experienced such desires coming forward, and it was his fault on any level to have begun this calamity. The way Humbert describes himself as a very dedicated lover and intricate caring person is completely wrong seeing the fact that he could have showed both love and care through his actions of responsibility rather than the way he has begun to sexually violate his own stepdaughter, of all people.
When Lolita gives mournful glances to Humbert while in his lap, is one sight that explains everything in much more detail than Humbert’s entire narration. It shows how filthy Humbert is, in his acts, and how the once educated professor uses his early wounds of tragic romance to lure a girl in for sexual activities time and again through permissions to participate at a school musical play and to obtain pocket money on a daily basis. These acts describe the types of monstrosity that the literature professor is capable of and exerts on Lolita.
On a more technical note, the ways in which the language is used and how the details are given, the book is a palace of divine revelations for any literary person in this world. However, the pornographic touch, the paedophiliac activities of Humbert and the ways in which he would try to show himself as the victim is quite alarming. It shows how disgusting child abuse really is and what the mind and psyche of a paedophiliac actually looks like, making more hatred grow for such perpetrators.
This is all the more reason why Lolita should be censored for young children as it would explicitly torture them with undeserved truth about this world and the dark forces that lurk in the shadow on every street and corner of a block. It also becomes terribly wrong for a child to understand what happens to them in the world where such kind of people generally exist. It shows how demeaning an innocent character can be and what his purpose of handing out a lollypop could in fact be.
All of this still doesn’t mean that the book should be taken away from the stores, no. The book is a master class and should only be censored to the extent where the explicit details are given throughout the book so as to avoid more professors and men like Humbert, from wreaking havoc in the lives of young children. The reviews that sympathize with Humbert should also be censored as they continuously demand an exacerbated account of a paedophile and this makes them dangerous in the manner that they will motivate more paedophiles in the world who will be encouraged by the fact that people in the world do sympathize with them and feel sorry for them. This would lead to a disastrous turn of events as more paedophiliac activities would rise and that is simply not acceptable. Not after what an imaginary character like Lolita went through in her story’s life.