Lolita

Humbert and Lolita begin to travel across the United States. He describes the various hotels and motels they stay in as well as the stops at souvenir shops to indulge Lolita’s whims. Humbert admits that she is unimpressive to him mentally; he refers to her, like Charlotte did, as “a brat.” At the same time, he tries to keep her happy with movies and other distractions he dislikes. While he will occasionally let her visit with girls her age, he tries to prevent her from talking to other tourists, especially boys. To keep Lolita under his control, he relies on three methods. He threatens to turn the car around to visit a Haze relative she despises; he threatens to send her to reform school; and he reminds her that were she to accuse him of rape, she would end up in foster care and that she has no one else to care for her but him. The year between August of 1947 and 1948 is spent zigzagging the country, avoiding only Florida, where the Farlows now live. Humbert compares the American landscape they visit to works by classic painters but notes that Lolita seems bored by the experience. They will, he notes, end up in the college town of Beardsley in the northeast.