Blog Post #4- Responding and Reflecting

In a variety of ways, Lolita, written by Vladimir Novakov does not adhere to what I would call a conventional story or book. Before knowing anything about the book or story, I had assumed it was a romance novel, though this was far from the case. As I read through the first half of the novel with a psychoanalytic lens, I found that I did not find any characters identifiable, which is a risky move to make for an author. However, this did in the end pay off because no one within the story is meant to be relatable in much of any way. H. Humbert is a pedophile and is generally seen as a bad person (even he admits it on a few occasions), Lolita herself is often shown as a spoiled brat, and every other character is seen as uninteresting or simply unintelligent, as they cannot figure out just what kind of person Humbert is. This book has led to me, on multiple occasions, wondering just what I would do if I were to be in this situation, knowing someone like Humbert Humbert. Would I realize what kind of person he was? Would I be able to read the signs that seem so obvious when reading the book from his perspective? Truly, one would not be able to know unless they were in the situation themselves. Regardless, it is interesting to note that being a psychology student myself, I was easily able to identify points at which Freudian psychology was very apparent, and it is very clear that whether or not I personally like the novel or not, it is very psychologically interesting as far as characterizations go.