Where It All Goes Down
University Campus, the Welches' Country Home, Jim's Apartment
From the outset, we see that Jim feels like a fish out of water on the university campus. The entire atmosphere seems oppressive and anxiety-provoking to him. Unlike most places of work, universities aren't just single buildings but entire campuses where workers often have to walk from one building to another during their workday. We get the impression that for Jim, the campus can be a minefield. It's when he's strolling around that he's accosted by people he least wants to see, like Michie and Professor Welch. Jim has some of his least-favorite conversations during these walks around campus. He feels like an exposed target when he's out and about.
When Amis describes campus in detail, he focuses on the inside of the buildings. At the Summer Ball, for example, Jim notices the décor:
The walls were decorated with scenes from the remoter past, portrayed in what was no doubt an advanced style, so that in the one nearest Dixon, for example, some lack of perspective or similar commodity made a phalanx of dwarf infantrymen (Spartan? Macedonian? Roman?) seem to be falling from the skies upon their much larger barbarian adversaries (Persian? Iranian? Carthaginian?) who, unaware of the danger overhead, gazed threateningly into the middle distance. (10.14)
Even the artwork seems pretentious and ridiculous to Jim. Amis was using these descriptions to make the point that the newer, less prestigious British universities in the 1900s were trying to act grand so they could fit in with the legendary universities like Oxford and Cambridge. As far as Jim Dixon's concerned, though, it's all pretty stupid and childish.
Professor Welch's country home isn't portrayed as a pleasant getaway for Jim—he has some of his most intolerable moments there. The house is filled with artwork and furniture that he finds stuffy and ridiculous. And of course, the medieval madrigal weekend only emphasizes how out of place Jim feels in this environment.
Jim's cheap apartment is cramped, and he has very little privacy. Amis shows us here how poor Jim is on his lecturer's salary. He has to eat his landlady's terrible cooking in the company of his roommates. It's certainly no quiet refuge from the office.
And we can't forget the pubs. They're Jim's true element, his real retreat from the world of phonies and blowhards. When he can't stand one more minute at the Welch home or the Summer Ball, that's where he heads.
Jim's fantasy home? London. Here's a daydream he has after fleeing to the lavatory during a date with Margaret:
He was certain it was an image of London, and just as certain that it wasn't of any part of London he'd ever visited. He hadn't spent more than a dozen evenings there in his life. Then why, he pondered, was his ordinary desire to leave the provinces for London sharpened and particularized by this half-glimpsed scene? (2.57)
In general, we get the impression that Jim dislikes wide-open spaces like the campus lawns or ballrooms, which makes it more likely he'll have to deal with people he'd rather avoid. He prefers smaller, more intimate places where he doesn't have to deal with lots of people. Pubs and taxis seem to fit the bill. The auditorium hall where he has to present his lecture is his worst nightmare. If he weren't so drunk, he'd have had an even worse panic attack than he does.