- Do you know where your children are? Lolita is up to something and Humbert doesn't know what she's up to. Make a catalog of the signs that she is doing something behind her stepfather's back. To win, you must find at least seven.
1. A good example of Lolita playing games with Humbert is when she wanted to leave Beardsley and the School, when the school play was only about a week away. "'You are a funny creature, Lolita,' I said--or some such words. 'Naturally, I am overjoyed you gave up that absurd stage business. But what is curious is that you dropped the whole thing only a week before its natural climax'" (209). Humbert knows it's odd for Lolita to drop the play, that he very reluctantly let her be apart of, but he was too enthralled with her to notice it was the start of her departure from his presence.
2. The next example isn't far from the beginning of their journey. "At the very beginning of, the Midwest lap of our journey, when she managed to convey some information to, or otherwise get into contact with, a person or persons unknown. We had stopped at a gas station, under the sign of Pegasus, and she had slipped out of her seat and escaped to the rear premise while the raised hood, under which I had bent to watch the mechanic's manipulations, hid her fro a moment from my sight" (211). Once again, he is suspicious but he doesn't seem to know that she is having someone follow their movements to help her secede from him.
3. Another good example is when he left her alone one morning and she had been out, but he didn't know why. Lolita gave Humbert a vague, but believable enough (to Humbert) excuse. "I plumped down my heavy paper bag and stood staring at the bare ankles of her sandaled feet, then at her silly face, then again at her sinful feet. 'You've been out,' I said (the sandals were filthy with gravel). 'I just got up,' she replied, and added upon intercepting my downward glance: 'Went out for a sec. Wanted to see if you were coming back.' ... What special suspicion could I have? None indeed..." (214). Here is it obvious, again, that Lolita is up to something, but Humbert isn't getting to clues.
4. When Lolita was talking to men, Humbert was jealous. But he had noticed there was a convertible following them. He walked out of a gas station and saw the man talking to Lolita, and he started to become really suspicious--even to the point to hallucination (217). "I happened to glance through a side window, and saw a terrible thing. A broad-backed man, baldish, in an oatmeal coat and dark-brown trousers, was listening to Lo who was leaning out of the car and talking to him very rapidly, her hand with outspread fingers going up and down as it did when she was very serious and emphatic" (218). Now, it's obvious that they are being followed, but Humbert still doesn't take much precaution in protecting his "prey."
5. The next example is when Lolita was missing for about half an hour, and lied to Humbert about where she went. When he questioned her, she said she was with a friend getting a soda, but the more he asked about the girl, the more he realized she was lying. "'Good. Was it that place there?' [Humbert] 'Sure.' [Lolita]. 'Good, come on, we'll grill the soda jerk.' 'Wait a sec. Come to think it might have been further down--just around the corner.' 'Come on all the same. Go in please. Well, let's see.' (Opening a chained telephone book.) ' Dignified Funeral Service. No, not yet. Here we are: Druggiests-Retail. Hill Drug Store. Larkin's Pharmacy. And two more. that's all. Wace seems to have in the way of soda fountains--at least in the business section. Well, we will check them all.' 'Go to hell,' she said. 'Lo, rudeness will get you nowhere.' 'Okay,' she said. 'But you're not going to trap me. Okay, so we did not have a pop' (225). Now Humbert becomes very suspicious and jealous. He knows she is trying to contact someone, but he doesn't know why or who it is. He becomes even more controlling over her to the point of madness. He knows she detests him, but he won't let her go.
6. Through the progression of these clues, it becomes more obvious that she is up to something. Especially when Humbert gets a flat fire, he starts to walk to the man in the convertible for help and Humbert's car begins to miraculously move. When he reaches the car. Lolita is in the drivers seat and says the car started to move and she saved it. "I looked back--and saw my own car gently creeping away. I could make out Lo ludicrously at the wheel and the engine was certainly running--though I remembered I had cut it but had not applied the emergency brake; and during the brief space of throb-time that it took me to reach the croaking machine which came to a standstill at last, it dawned upon me that during the last two years little Lo had had ample time to pick up the rudiments of driving. As I wrenched the door open, i was goddam sure she had started the car to prevent me from walking up to Trapp" (228-229). Humbert knows Lolita is to blame and it was a well calculated spur-of-the-moment idea on her part.
7. The last clue Lolita gives to Humbert is right before she leaves. He is starting to realize she really doesn't want to be around him. Her comments are becoming harsher. She asks for her clothes when he tells her he wants to leave the town--instead of leaving with him, she leaves with another man. "'My Carmen,' I said (I used to call her that sometimes), 'we shall leave this raw sore town as soon as you get out of bed.' 'Incidentally, I want all my clothes,' said the gitanilla, humping up her knees and turning to another page. '... Because, really,' I continued, 'there is no point in staying here.' 'There is no point in staying anywhere,' said Lolita."
Humbert said, "Better destroy everything than surrender her" (235). This passage shows that he was so scared and worried about losing her that he would rather everything fall apart. He didn't see the signs because he didn't want to see the signs. He knew she was tired of him, but he didn't care. All he wanted was Lolita--all of her to himself.
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