"We had been everywhere. We had really seen nothing. And I catch myself thinking today that our long journey had only defiled with a sinuous trail of slime the lovely, trustful, dreamy, enormous country that by then, in retrospect, was no more to us than a collection of dog-eared maps, ruined tour books, old tired, and he sobs in the night- every night, every night- the moment I feigned sleep." (pg 176)
This passage comes from Humbert's remorseful memories of their travels across the world. They had not been on vacation for pleasure, or to actually see and enjoy their time together. It had been out of fear. Humbert was worried that Lolita was going to tell somebody about their sexual encounters (as we learned in part 1) but he successfully hid her away with his dirty bribes and use of money.
Sight-seeing around the world could be a lovely thing but instead of being pleasurable, it really was just a way to keep Lolita all to himself. Before her mother died, Lolita was simply a beautiful nymphet in his eyes. He wanted to touch her sweetly and fondly her; he had no real intentions on having sex with her or ruining her purity. After he finally did have sex with her, his greed got the best of him and he wanted more. At night Lolita would begin to cry and the audience can only assume it was because of Humbert; she still relied on him because he was the only authority figure she had in her life, even if the relationship was obviously vulgar.
Q: Lolita became drastically less excited about sight-seeing towards the end of their expeditions and even less enthralled with Humbert. Was it the bribes and presents that kept her from telling the policemen and adults about Humbert's actions or was there something else?
Madelyn Moon
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