Lolita Cultural Significance

Innovative or Simply Post-Modern?
Cultural Significance in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita America during the 1950s was both materialistic and socially conservative with less rebellion. Before this, Puritan thought still invaded and controlled many social and literary cultural norms. Many people still feared the ideas of consumerism and modernity, but as the times changed, this new generation of American culture slowly but surely worked its way into society. The nation was straying away from its old Puritan aspects as new ones were slowly being explored, such as capitalism, modernity and industrialism. 1950s America was successful in adapting consumerism as towns flourished into cities, therefore defining the Western world. Like Humbert Humbert
Humbert Humbert’s obsession with little girls defines what many in the Western world still, to this day find to be revolting. However Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita goes beyond the common ideas of pedophilia. It becomes an observation and criticism of everyday American life, not only as seen in the 1950s but in the preceding years, as well as its repercussions. Nevertheless, in today’s society, American pop culture revolves around the daily broadcasts of Hollywood’s affairs and society’s desire to imitate the “elite”. American pop culture is also seen as favoring separatism by means of education level and income. Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita was and continues to be a satirical critique of American pop culture. Lolita is a story that challenges the reader to rethink how American culture is taking away from everyday life. Through Humbert Humbert, Lolita effectively creates a reaction from the reader using satire and word play as American culture pop becomes analyzed. It is for this reason specifically, that it
Nabokov does this to draw awareness to the hypocritical thinking of society by manipulating the reader’s reaction in order to create a multifaceted moral effect. Lolita is mainly focused on the impacts of idealized values through Humbert Humbert’s reproduction of lost love and the media’s use of advertisements to emphasize discriminating, hypocritical and refined values. This is evident through Humbert Humbert’s constant descriptions of Lolita which often use detailed interpretations of her body rather than her potential life outside his sexualized desires. Humbert Humbert’s fixation with Lolita is obvious in his confession to a romanticized representation of her. The novel is composed of various images that create an alternate reality which is an imitation of American pop culture. By doing this, Nabokov demonstrates the manipulating and negative impacts of social media; especially advertising and Hollywood gossip can have on the population. Lolita highlights the immodest interests of media loving Americans and what stories often appeal to them. The American characters in the novel are obsessed with the idea of Hollywood, even if it costs them their honour and morality. Characters like Lolita show how dangerous it can be to lose touch with reality and solely focus on images of celebrity culture. The novel tries to