THE USE OF THE NARRATOR’S LANGUAGE AS CAMOUFLAGE: A STUDY ON VLADIMIR NABOKOV’S LOLITA

Abstract

Nabokov’ s Lol i ta is a book tha t deal s wi th obse ss ive lust and bloody violence, sex and murde r of ten ma sked by the beauty of the language . One of the inter es t ing things of the novel i s the method of forcing the re ader to under s tand the main charac ter through a beaut i ful manipulat ion of language. The language in thi s nove l i s used not just mere ly to te l l a story. I t ha s another funct ion. I t i s to camouflage the r eader of the novel . Thi s the si s ana lyze s the words play and the int r igue s that the ma in charac ter use to camouf lage hi s behavior and hi s cr ime. Wha t make s the language used by the nar ra tor a f fect s the mind of the reader and why he use s the nar r at ive style in wr i t ing hi s te st imonial ar e the problems tha t wi l l discussed in thi s the s is . The scope of thi s study is bound only in the s t ructur al ana lys i s bec ause i t is an explora t ion about the l i ter ary e lement s that ma inly bui ld the nove l . They are dict ion, imagery and point of view. Me anwhi le there a re two approaches used in thi s thes i s, those ar e forma l i s t ic and psychological approach. Language i s very impor tant in our l ive. When we mee t someone for the f i r s t t ime , i t i s through language we usual ly gue s s the char ac ter of the per son tha t we ta lked to. By the language that he uses we can ge t our fi r s t impre s sion about him. The language in this the s is i s analyz ed from i t s dic t ion, imagery and point of view. Each of them ha s thei r own par t in camouf laging the nar ra tor ’s obse s sion of nymphe t and hi s faul t in murder Clare Qui l ty. The us ing of dict ion, image ry combine s wi th the use of f i r st pe r son nar ra t ive wi l l form a cer tain e f fe ct to the reader . The nar r ator holds every impor tant aspect to s t i r the re ader to wha t he want s. I t i s to show tha t he i s a nice per son. He knows that he i s cla imed for a case of murder . So he wr i te s hi s te st imonia l in nove l form so he can give more dramat ic e f fect in his story. He wrote i t in a jai l cel l . But be fore hi s cour t began, he wa s de ad. In his te st imony, he draws himse l f as an innocent man tha t ha s fooled by a l i t t le gi r l who ha s contaminated wi th Ame r ican cul ture . And i t i s more touching for him to wr i te i t in nove l form than wr i te i t in a formal form of a te st imonial so he can touch the re ader ’ s deep he ar t . He hope s the re ader a s the jury of hi s cr ime wi l l not give thei r judgment object ive ly. Af ter they reading the story, he hopes they wi l l use thei r emot ion to make a deci s ion whe ther he i s gui l ty or not .