Humbert is an asshole

So having nearly finished Lolita, I now feel comfortable enough to talk about it. My point is pretty simple, Humbert is an asshole. Duh, Edgar, he rapes a child. Well, it seems that some of fellow students have been swayed by Humbert's fancy prose style and have started to question if Humbert is only partially to blame.

Miku thinks Lo may be a willing participant and Meredith didn't even consider labeling what happens between HH and Lo as rape until Lo says, "You know, where you raped me." Lets step back a bit. When reading Lolita, you are reading what Nabokov decided the character Humbert would decide to tell you. Having that in mind, is Humbert even telling the truth? Usually one wouldn't question the narrator's integrity, but we are dealing with a child rapist here who rationalizes his actions. If we are to consider Humbert as a human, then we must consider that humans lie frequently and so does Humbert.

As for Lo's supposed wickedness, are we ever truly to know what she was like? We only ever see Humbert's view. Lo seducing Humbert is almost laughable to me. When I was her age, I knew little to nothing about sex but as hell pretended to ("then the baby comes out the butt"), and whatever I pretended to know came from friends who pretended to know. Of course, this was before the internet came around to take all our innocence away. I blame it all on the piss poor sex "education" I got from school. So what could Lo possibly know? Little to nothing outside of what goes where I wager. I'm sure she knows exactly how to seduce a grown man. Why would she be so nonchalant about what Humbert does to her? I would think that her relationship with Humbert feels normal to her since it is the only relationship she has for a while. She doesn't know any other way until she grows and then ends up to resent Humbert. Also, women who are raped can develop complexities about sex and relationships. This could explain Lo's errant behavior.

Humbert says his want is only natural. No human want is unnatural. Murderers act on natural urges of hate. I'm sure that justifies such acts. Humbert says that sex between father and daughter were accepted in some dignified cultures of the past. That must mean slavery is fine considering it was accepted in cultures of the past.

Humbert also states he tried to keep Lo's innocence intact. This is a very fatherly thing to do and paints him in a good light except for the fact that Humbert gets off on young little girls. Its a completely selfish act. He doesn't want to protect her from the world; he just wants her to stay the same so he can get off.

Don't fall for Humbert's fancy prose style, he is an asshole. Never listen to what a guy says, just pay attention to what he does. Humbert says all these nice things but rapes his stepdaughter. I rest my case.