The Immigrant Experience

Pnin, along with many other characters in the book, is a Russian immigrant. The story takes place mainly in the years during and after World War II and, as such, public feeling was already militating strongly against the Soviets and, therefore, also against the Russians living in America, despite the fact that many of them had not been in their home country since they were young children. Pnin does not seem to be able to relate very well with non-Russians and, indeed, many people seem to positively hate him, though the reasons for this hatred are not clear. Pnin has not mastered, nor will he ever master, the English language, a fact which is only compounded by his thick Russian accent. His difficulty in communicating makes life troublesome for him at several points. For example, in the first chapter when he trying to get to Cremona...