The Confession of a White Widowed Male; it’s the book that inspired an entire subculture of fashion and sexual fetishism. Better known as Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, the novel is an example of how society condemns the victims of abuse and excuses the abusers based on their reputations and how they are perceived in the society. The novel makes a statement about the way people use how they are perceived in society conceal their true nature. In likelihood, CNN reports on how two rapists of Steubenville High School, with “promising futures” had their lives destroyed as they were convicted of rape. The reporters glaze over the victim, preferring instead to discuss how tragic the crime was for the rapists. Both Nabokov and the video prove the way …show more content…
He is an erudite, “an exceptionally handsome male; slow-moving, tall, with soft dark hair and a gloomy but all the more seductive cast of demeanor” (Nabokov 18), a trait which makes him able to “obtain at the snap of my fingers any adult female I choose”(18). It is this perception of Humbert as a mysterious, well-read, cultured European man, a fascination in America, which attracts people to him and it is in itself an alibi. He’s shown to be deceptive and abusive throughout the novel, he makes passing comments at how he would bully his first wife, he enjoys confusing psychiatrists, and often plans to “gorge the limp nymphet with sleeping pills” (69) and eventually carries through with it. He manages to hide his intentions from Lolita’s mother for months, and is able to fool everyone around him. Even the readers are not immune to his charms, for he describes even the scene where he mastrubates by rubbing himself off on Lolita’s “shameless innocent shanks and round bottom” (50) with such righteous words. He makes himself sympathetic to the readers as the poetic, tortured man who struggles with his own desires and morals; as well as having other characters view him as the tragic scholar and a loving …show more content…
Clare Quilty is a handsome, renowned playwright and an accomplished child pornographer. They have distinguished reputations and are seen as academics, so no other characters in the story are any wiser to their criminal activity. As media is a reflection of our society, the way CNN mourns not the trauma in which the victim suffered from, but the tarnished reputation of these “star students”. The convicted rapists are shown in a sympathetic light, with large emphasis on how young they are and how much spending time in a juvenile correction centre and being registered as sex offenders in Ohio will affect their future. [ENDING