In Vladimir Nabokov "Signs and Symbols" the main character is a twenty two year old man who is mentally deranged, also known as Referential Mania. A person with Referential Mania may have the mindset of imagining everything around them is a disguised allusion to the patients personality and presence. Set in a 1947 time frame, the short story begins with an elderly couple whose world is falling apart due to grieving, acceptance, and denial. Vladimir portrays the couples son as a fatality prototype because first he wants no devotion to liking people, second, coming from a lower class family, and lastly having mental problems. Vladimir Nabokov's first novel, Mashenka, published in 1926, however Vladimir did not reach success until the publication of a novel called "Lolita." Alongside with "Signs and Symbols" Nabokovs novel "Lolita" is a top selling novel of all time, as many as 50 million copies sold in 1955. The plot of "Signs and Symbols" outlines the parents aspects towards their son who is suicidal, observant, and mentally disordered. …show more content…
As these malignant delusions progressed, it then led him to a sanitarium. A sanitarium where suicide attempts were undertaken multiple times. "He would have succeeded had not an envious fellow-patient thought he was learning to fly and stopped him just in time. What he really wanted to do was to tear a hole in his world and escape." In addition to the multiple suicide attempts, the twenty- two year old, thought everything was against him. "All around him, there are spies. Some of them are detached observers, like glass surfaces and still pools; others, such as coats in store windows, are prejudiced witnesses, lynchers at heart; others, again (running water, storms), are hysterical to the point of insanity, have a distorted opinion of him, and grotesquely misinterpret his