Response #8 (for 10/3)

(As I've said in class, I'm most interested in dissecting certain places in Lolita in which Humbert is using very specific word choices to get the readers on his side.)

One word in particular that stands out to me in the conclusion of Part One is in the very last sentence, "You see, she had absolutely nowhere else to go" (142). This sentence without "absolutely" would have made a sufficient enough point. Adverbs generally aren't the meat of a clause to begin with, and since this line closes the first half of the book, it punctuates itself nicely without any "superfluous" words. 

My muddled, not-yet-totally-developed instinct is that "absolutely" is meant to trick us into believing that he genuinely thought of alternatives. It's an extremely bad trick if you've been paying attention at all, but I can't think of another reason for that word to be included. Just one, final attempt of Humbert's at convincing the reader that Lolita belongs with him.