The purpose of this paper is to analyse the theme of alienation in Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows and Home Fire. Since Shamsie writes about the difficulties of assimilating to a foreign country with its own culture and beliefs, her works in some ways mirror her own diasporic experience as an immigrant. Readers can get a glimpse of immigrant life and the on-going struggle between the home country and the foreign nation through these novels.

Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) is often discussed through Humbert Humbert’s unreliable narration and the controversial representation of Dolores Haze. A closer examination reveals that the novel’s silenced and marginalised characters provide alternative perspectives that destabilise Humbert’s dominant voice. Charlotte Haze, Clare Quilty, Gaston Godin, and other peripheral characters function as narrative counterpoints, exposing the limitations of Humbert’s self-serving account.