Lolita

 

Lolita is a story about a man and his reasoning for what he did to get into jail. This beautifully written novel by Vladimir Nabokov is disguised by a darker underlining theme.  The story is about a man who has relations with a 12 year old girl. Throughout the story, he tells his story, reasoning with the reader about his actions. Personally, I don’t buy a second of it.

            I didn’t finish this story because I found it really disturbing. The main character likes twelve-year-old girls for god sakes!  The beautiful words he speaks barely mask this horrible act. If it were someone who speaks plainly and was incarcerated for the same crime, nobody would give him excuses. For me, its not what you say, its what you do. What that man did was inexcusable and I don’t think hes suitable for the outside world when he has those urges.

            One of the arguments he presented on his defense was that just 50 years ago, (well 100 for us) 12-year-old marriage to men, whom were older, wasn’t exactly uncommon. This is a juvenile defense; “They did it, so I can too” is not going to convince me otherwise.  Times were different back then, life expectancy was shorter, people had to grow up a bit faster because they did marry much earlier in life. Even today, my parent’s generation tended to wed a lot earlier than today’s youth. This is because of the education for women and their independence as a whole.  Just because, up until about the 60’s, sexual harassment was is the workplace does not mean that it’s acceptable today.

            Maybe I am extremely biased in that I know people have had traumatic experiences when they were the same age. A person that young is not ready for that adult experience because they know nothing or very little about it. Maybe that’s the way things were, I don’t care. I don’t think it’s the way things should be. Im usually a pretty open-minded person but this is where I draw the line. Youth and innocence should be protected at all costs.


Movie: Exotica by Atom Egoyan