Soul - “Russian Spoken Here”
Vladimir Nabokov writes, “A man's soul can be compared to a department store and his eyes to twin display windows. Judging by Martin's eyes, warm, brown tints were in fashion. Judging by those eyes, the merchandise inside his soul was of superb quality.” The soul is a motif for a magnificent, sublime mode of being. The soul is neither solid nor detectible , but it can be sensed through the eyes.
Seesaw - “A Matter of Chance”
Vladimir Nabokov illuminates, “Luzhin lived on a kind of steel seesaw: he had time to think and reminisce only at night, in a narrow nook that smelled of fish and dirty socks.” The Seesaw is symbolic of Luzhin’s persistent nomadic reality. His swift change of jobs is comparable to the tenacious up and down vacillation of a seesaw. In other words, Luzhin’s lifecycle is neither invariable nor expectable.
