1/25/2019 5 Comments Vladimir NabokovAuthor’s Name: Vladimir Nabokov
Dates Alive: April 22, 1899 to July 2, 1977 Location: First being born in St. Petersburg, Russia, he soon fled to Berlin in 1922 to escape the growing communist state in Russia, as his father was a leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party. In Berlin, his father was shot and killed because of his beliefs, and Nazi tension was growing, then leading him to flee to France. He then in 1940 fled to the U.S. with his Jewish wife Vera Nabokov and son Dmitri Nabokov, as the Nazis began to invade France. Major Works: Vladimir Nabokov wrote many very popular books in his life, most popularly Lolita(1955), but he also wrote Pale Fire(1962), Pnin(1957), and many more. His work became especially famous when he began translating his work into english. Major Themes: The major themes of Vladimir Nabokov’s work are: Exploration of untraditional situations The Power of Language Difference between European and American culture. Novel Choice Plot Summary: The novel starts off with the main character and narrator, Humbert Humbert, explaining that as a 12 year old boy, he fell deeply in love with a 13 year old girl named Annabel. Only within four month, Annabel died of typhus, completely destroying Humbert. This lead him to live the rest of his life only attracted to 13 year old girls. So, when Humbert grows up, he travels to America, in search of 13 year old girls, and eventually finds one, named Lolita. Humbert kills Lolita’s mother, and travels the country with Lolita, developing their relationship. Soon, Lolita is kidnapped from Humbert, leaving him searching for her for the next 5 years. Eventually, Humbert finds Lolita when she is 19 years old, and he is no longer attracted to her. Though he is still upset, so he tracks down her kidnapper, who is a porn director, and murders him, leading Humbert to serve the rest of his life in prison. Analysis of Main Characters: Humbert- Humbert is the main character of the story, who you could consider the protagonist or the antagonist. Ultimately, Humbert is a pedophile, who literally traveled across the planet to find 13 year old girls to prey on. Obviously, there is nothing good about Humberts actions, but this is not the typical story. Here, are put into Humberts mind and know all of his thoughts, which leads the reader to form a sort of bond with him, like we typically do to the main character. In the end, Humbert does realize that he destroyed Lolita’s childhood, showing that he is somewhat conscious of his actions. Lolita- Lolita is described as flirtatious and seductive with Humbert in the beginning, but was it true? It may have seemed true to Humbert, but Lolita didn’t feel real love. At 13 years old, Lolita was still physically and mentally developing, along with the fact that she had never been in a relationship before and was going through puberty at the time, so she really was not capable of truly loving such an older man at the time, it was simply her being manipulated. Hence the reason why pedophilia is a crime. Theme: The most significant theme in Lolita is that love is a powerful for force that control our thoughts and actions, for the better and the worse. In the case of Lolita, it is definitely for the worse. As a twelve year old boy, the main character Humbert fell deeply in love with a girl named Annabel Leigh, who died of typhus only four months into their relationship. This destroyed and tormented Humbert, causing him to be forever attracted to girls of Annabel's age. Humbert would then go on to travel to the U.S. to find thirteen year old girls to form a sexual relationship with, eventually meeting, and manipulating Lolita, a twelve year old girl. Because of his one romantic encounter at a young age, Humbert had become a pedophile, honestly believing that the love he had for young girls was correct. How did the author’s life influence his writing in this novel? (2-3 paragraphs) Much of Nabokov’s life in Europe was of influence to his writing and the common themes in most of his novels. Usually when reading a novel of this detailed, you would think that it may be personal to the author's real life, but that is not the truth in this situation. Nabokov’s writing is do to the fact that he was educated in Russian, English, and French, and highly valued words and literature. In addition, Nabokov grew his ideas from the political and cultural atmospheres at the time. Everywhere he went, governments and society were oppressing thoughts and eliminating freedom of speech and expression. In Russia, Nabokov and his family had to flee do to their political values. Then to Germany, where the Nazis and Hitler eliminated any aspect of society that they saw opposed their rein, including jews, blacks, foreigners, and anyone with traditional values. Nabokov felt strongly against this, and is where he got his ideas from. Like with Lolita, Nabokov did not agree with pedophilia, but he also did not agree that we should pretend that it is not a thing. Instead of completing blinding people from these situations, Nabokov felt that it was important for everyone to be informed about the truth of these untraditional or looked down upon aspects in life, to form their own opinions for themselves. Works Cited: Albert, Melissa, and Andrew Field. “Vladimir Nabokov.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 3 Oct. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-Nabokov. “Home.” FAMOUS AUTHORS, www.famousauthors.org/vladimir-nabokov. By: Matt M.
5 Comments
Jack
1/31/2019 10:10:47 am
How does this theme relate to your life if it does at all?
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Matt Marano
1/31/2019 10:18:33 am
It does not relate back to my life.
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Rachael Tomanelli
2/3/2019 06:13:12 pm
Do you think Nabokov wrote Lolita as a way to project his own love life experiences? Did he tragically loose a significant other in his life?
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Marlon
2/3/2019 06:15:43 pm
This guy is a psychopath that murdered innocent people for his own entertainment.
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Logan
2/4/2019 05:19:41 pm
How did you find out about this author and what made you choose this book.
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