American Consumerism At Its Finest

Hello again bloggers! I've decided to day that I'm going to focus my blog post on one key allegory within Nabokov's novel Lolita. 

One of the major aspects of Lolita that I have noticed within this second section of reading is all the consumerism, mostly by Dolores herself. What's important to note is that Vladimir Nabokov was initially born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1899. He spent the beginning of his life in Europe, and only traveled to the United States in 1940. This is key in the beginning plot of Lolita, and how his upbringing really influenced Dolores Haze as a character, and his perspective on the consumerism culture of America. 

In the beginning of the novel, Humbert Humbert is living in Europe, until his marriage to Valeria fails. Then, on the quest of new work, and because his "life needed a shake-up" (27) Humbert traveled to America where he finally met Charlotte and Dolores Haze. This is an obvious parallel between Nabokov's life, and the life he created for Humbert Humbert. 

From the way Humbert speaks of Charlotte and Dolores' "American" characteristics, such as all the nick-nacks from gift shops that Lolita requested, and the materialistic junk that was in Charolette's home, Nabokov wasn't a fan of all the consumerism that America had to offer. "The front hall was graced with door chimes, a white-eyed wooden thingamabob of commercial Mexican origin, and that banal darling of the artsy middle class, van Gogh's "Aresienne." A door ajar to the right afforded a glimpse of a living room, with some more Mexican trash in a corner cabinet and a striped sofa along the wall." (36) The Mexican trash in the Haze's household was their attempt at seeming "cultured", while Humbert saw it as a sad attempt at decorating the house. Obviously, Nabokov wasn't keen on cheap American tourist novelties some middle class family picked up while on vacation. 

This is also seen multiple times when Humbert is with Lolita in the car as they are traveling around the United States for a year. "In the gay town of Lepingville I bought her four books of comics, a box of candy, a box of sanitary pads, two cokes, a manicure set, a travel clock with a luminous dial, a ring with a real topaz, a tennis racket, roller-skates with white high shoes, field glasses, a portable radio set, chewing gum, a transparent raincoat, sunglasses, some more garments- swoons, shorts and summer frocks." (142) This amount of stuff seems like so much, but Humbert buys Lolita whatever she wants whenever she wants it, in an effort to control her behavior and keep her quiet through their travels. What's not shocking at all is that once Lolita has read her books or played with her toys a couple times, they are often discarded, to easily be replaced by something new Humbert will buy for her in the next couple of days.

The sheer amount of stuff that Nabokov discusses in these expansive lists is tremendous. Obviously, no parent would actually buy their kid all that stuff at once. (You would hope.) But, Nabokov is using these lists to show the amount of consumerism America has. The comparison between the simplistic life of old England, and the fast pasted and easily replaced culture of new America is shown within Nabokov's novel. The extensive lists are his commentary on American culture, and how focused American's are on materialistic objects.