Vladimir Nabokov didn't intent to write Lolita as a purist because concentrating on a single genre would make the novel obvious and the complex vocabulary of the narrator pointless. Lolita itself makes a journey through different genres which surprisingly favors the reader's interest. The novel makes a significant transition in terms of genre the instant the reader associates it with a generic category. Including the ongoing satire throughout the story, there are many elements that reveal the mixed genre of Lolita. The utopian idea of romance draws the attention of the reader at the beginning but the surprise of the brutal truth behind the plot .
“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.” (Nabokov 9). Vladimir Nabokov’s language in Lolita displays the enchanting power of language in its most innate form. In the classic dark love story of Humbert Humbert, the pedophile, and Dolores Haze, the naïve child, Nabokov 's choice in syntax encapsulates the audience’s attention from line to line, readers only hoping to understand the complexity of a character such as Humbert Humbert. The usage of literary devices aid in building Humbert Humbert’s character in Lolita as his thought process and narrative exposes itself through poetic diction.
This structure allows him to more easily organize his thoughts. It also allows his audience to better understand his lecture. It separates talking about two different people, the reader and the writer. It also allows for the audience’s questions to be asked as well as answered within the lecture. Nabokov is able to explain why
His skill with language pervades each sentence of the novel: from punning to wordplay to poetry. This shows the richness of his language. The effect of this linguistic play, however, often goes beyond mere aesthetic pleasure. In several places, Nabokov enlightens us with the idea of advertisement: language used to depict a product or service in an alluring way. This theme of advertisement-language creates an additional layer of meaning in Lolita.
One of the area of conflict that rose in the book involves the usage of the English language in relation of the family’s native language, Spanish. As a Mexican-American raised in the States the exhibition of the English language, whether the use of the tongue is fluent or not, cause a strain in the Mexican culture as the culture takes in consideration of their romance and richness of history in their native tongue (Rothman 204). Language represent the supporting backbone of a person as the progress in life as the ability to communicate without misunderstands, however a person can cause the loss connection to the past romance of the culture and art of cultivation that brings the language to lifes from their inabilities to comprehend the ability/asset to its fullest potential (Rothman 204). To fully understand the true meaning behind a spoken chain of words can be understood by the method of trying to first comprehend the cultivation of the word and the definition behind them. Cisneros embeds the use of Spanish in fragments depicting a sense of reality within a fictional novel, Caramelo, as well with the use of interchangeable dialogues with spanish phrase to express the illustration of Celaya’s family and the culture in which is translate in of importance of pride.
Take The Tortillas out of your poetry written by Rudolfo Anaya demonstrated how the poets that tried to add their culture into their poetry were rejected for having a different language. How do immigrants struggle coming to america? Learning the language and having difficulty speaking english, having trouble communicating. In The latin Deli: An Ars Poetica it identifies the issue of speaking a different language. The poem states "all wanting comfort of spoken spanish."
Lolita: The Glamorization of Obsessive Love “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins...Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.” (Nabokov 1). So begins the infamous and deeply sorrowing novel “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov, a Russian - American novelist and entomologist. Regarded as one of the most controversial novels of the 20th century, it tells the story of Humbert Humbert, a forty something literature professor, who desperately falls in love with a Dolores Haze, a 12 year old nymphet. In an attempt to demonstrate the tragedy of obsessive love, Nabokov weaves an incredibly sentimental and heartfelt story.
“My Favorite Chaperone” by Jean Davies Okimoto and The Latehomecomer, by Kao Kalia Yang both incorporate use of figurative language. Figurative language helps to create a visual image in the reader’s mind. Authors also incorporate figurative language in order to enhance and explain a variety of literary elements throughout a piece of literature. Firstly, “My Favorite Chaperone” by Okimoto, incorporates a variety of figurative language throughout the story. One example of figurative language is “It seemed like one thousand years, but it was only a minute before Ms. Illo brought Papa into the office” (Okimoto 11).
While Barrientos and Marquez in the book, The Norton Sampler, both come from very similar cultures, they both have been raised to view their culture in different ways. In, Se Habla Espanol, Tanya Barrientos writes about how when she was younger she took pride in not knowing Spanish, but later wishes she knew the language. Myriam Marquez discusses in, Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public, that she takes pride in speaking Spanish because it is respectful to her culture. In this essay we will look into the ways in which Barrientos and Marquez differ in the ways they have been raised to view their culture. In, Se Habla Espanol, Barrientos’ family move from Guatemala to the USA where they wish to cut ties with their Hispanic culture.
Tolkien, a linguist before an author, was quoted saying that “Nobody believes me when I say that my long book (LOTR) is an attempt to create a world in which a form of language agreeable to my personal aesthetic might seem real, […] it was an effort to create a situation in which a common greeting would be elen sila lumenn omentielmo (Carpenter 264-265)”. Over the course of his lifetime, Tolkien created several different languages, such as Elvish (including Quenya and Sindarin), Dwarvish, Black Speech, and Entish. It seems that in Tolkien’s eyes, language was the beginning of a culture rather than only a product of it. Tolkien wrote that “The invention of languages is the foundation,” the ‘stories’ were made rather to fit the notion of the languages than the reverse.” In Lord of the Rings, Tolkien created Middle-earth as a world for his invented language [...]. Each invented language in his works plays an important role in the evolution of events and development of the characters in the story.