Lolita

This reading was somewhat kind of disturbing to read because all I could think of was how a grown man could actually be sexually attracted to very young girls between the ages of eight and fourteen.  Humbert, the narrator of this excerpt, is basically obsessed with these young girls and refers to them as “nymphets”.   Humbert believes that this obsession with young girls had started off with Annabel, which was basically his first love. 

Throughout the reading, Humbert describes some of his sexual relations he had with other girls, and it was disgusting to know that he was only attracted to young girls, and if they started to show signs of being a woman, he was no longer attracted to them.  For example, he had tried to be a normal man by marrying an older woman, Valeria.  At first he was attracted to her because of her child-like attributes, but soon grew tired of her. 

Towards the end of the reading, Humbert meets twelve-year-old Dolores, who he calls Lolita.  He had just moved to New York and needed a place to stay.  Unaware of Humbert’s ways of liking young girls, Lolita’s mother allows Humbert to stay with them, and Humbert feels extremely attracted to Lolita.  It was very disturbing reading the part where Humbert explains how he starts to tease Lolita and touch her in certain ways that would seem normal to Lolita, but aroused him. He describes reaching an orgasm while she is next to him laying her legs on his lap.  As a young girl, Lolita had no idea what Humbert was doing and it disgusted me to know that Humbert had gotten aroused by this twelve-year-old girl.  At the end of the reading, Humbert learns that Lolita will be going away to summer camp and is greatly distressed.