How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
During the eight years Pnin had taught at Waindell College he had changed his lodgings— for one reason or another, mainly sonic—about every semester. The accumulation of consecutive rooms in his memory now resembled those displays of grouped elbow chairs on show, and beds, and lamps, and inglenooks which, ignoring all space-time distinctions, commingle in the soft light of a furniture store beyond which it snows, and the dusk deepens, and nobody really loves anybody. (3.1.1)
That's 24 times Pnin has moved in the last eight years. 24 times! That means Pnin has not had a stable address for almost a decade. He hasn't had the ability to lay down roots, really get to know his neighbors, or even just become a regular at the shops around his home. Moving frequently doesn't just mean that he moves his stuff, but that Pnin hasn't had a real opportunity to connect with the people around him.
Quote #2
At present Pnin was still renting the pink-walled, white-flounced second-floor bedroom in the Clements' house, and this was the first house he really liked and the first room he had occupied for more than a year. By now he had weeded out all trace of its former occupant; or so he thought, for he did not notice, and probably never would, a funny face scrawled on the wall just behind the headboard of the bed and some half-erased height-level marks penciled on the doorjamb, beginning from a four-foot altitude… (3.2.1)
Even in the room that Pnin has occupied for more than a year, there are traces of other occupants that seem to imply that it's not really his room. Like some kind of ghostly reminder, Isabel's childhood height marks and drawn funny face continue to mark the place as her room, and not his.
Quote #3
Till 1950 (this was 1953—how time flies!) he had shared an office in the German Department with Miller, one of the younger instructors, and then was given for his exclusive use Office R, which formerly had been a lumber room but had now been completely renovated. During the spring he had lovingly Pninized it. (3.4.1)
Even in an academic context, it seems that Pnin has to scrounge for every last bit of space he gets. The German department gives him what used to be a lumber-room, but Pnin doesn't even care. He loves that Pnin-ified lumber-room!