106 pages • 3 hours read
John Kennedy TooleA Confederacy of Dunces
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1980A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 11-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Santa, Mrs. Reilly, and Robichaux are sitting together, talking. They discuss Mancuso, and Mrs. Reilly thinks of the controversial sign Ignatius has pinned to their home, which reads “PEACE TO MEN OF GOOD WILL” (227). She worries that it is “communiss” (228). Robichaux discusses his pension and his rental properties; they allow him to be “pretty comfortable” though he is tired of living with his daughter and her family (229). Much to Santa’s chagrin, Mrs. Reilly keeps discussing her deficiencies. They discuss a trip to the cinema, and Santa recommends having Ignatius sectioned, as Mrs. Reilly cannot stop talking about him. At the cinema, Robichaux buys the tickets; as they watch the film, Mrs. Reilly cannot help but think of her son and her financial troubles. Robichaux places his hand on hers and Mrs. Reilly cries.
Ignatius writes about his planned political action and how Dorian and his “associates in foppery” will eventually bring about world peace (233). He hopes his plan will “confound Myrna minx” and make her seethe with envy (235). These plans have pushed all thoughts of hot dogs from his mind, and he is relieved that his mother is absent.
Mr. and Mrs. Levy return Trixie to Levy Pants. Gonzalez notes that she “looks fit,” though seems dismayed by Trixie’s return (237). Mrs. Levy insists that Trixie be given more authority and responsibility. A crash in the office is caused by Mr. Zalatino, the new filing man, who Gonzalez believes will not work out. A letter arrives addressed to Mr. Levy personally. He reads it, discovering that Abelman plans to sue Levy Pants for $500,000 as a result of the offensive letter sent by Ignatius but signed as though it were from Mr. Levy. The lawsuit has the potential to ruin the family business, and everyone begins to shout. Mr. Levy discovers the filing cabinets to be empty and asks about the “big kook” who had been fired (240). At the same time, Jones telephones the company and also asks for Ignatius. They phone the Reilly household and “a woman who sounded slightly intoxicated” tells them that Ignatius is not at home. Mr. and Mrs. Levy drive home, and she tells him that she wishes to start a foundation named for Mr. Levy’s dead father.
George stakes out Paradise Vendors. He follows Ignatius toward the French Quarter. The hot dog cart gets caught in a streetcar track; George offers to help Ignatius, who accepts the offer from his “pubescent nemesis” (248). Together, they right the cart. Ignatius accepts George’s offer of $10 a week to store his packages but insists on knowing what is inside. Before George can stop him, he opens a package and discovers that it contains pornography: a nude woman beside a globe, her face hidden by a Boethius book. Ignatius compliments her taste and reads the address on the package; he wants to meet the woman. Ignatius mentions that he knows Mancuso, and George grows nervous. George watches the cart while Ignatius visits the cinema, rattling his cutlass angrily at the film’s low quality. Afterward, he takes the cart back, eats a hot dog, and again examines the pornographic photograph.
He visits the address on the package and finds himself outside the Night of Joy; he’s intrigued by a poster advertising Darlene’s show. Inside, Lana watches Darlene rehearse. She exits and shouts at Ignatius to remove himself from her curb. Darlene joins them and asks about Mrs. Reilly. Lana calls for Jones, who arrives to discover the “green cap mother” he has been searching for (255). Jones mentions Ignatius’s reputation, and Ignatius concludes that he has “become a legend” (255). As the two talk, Ignatius convinces himself that Darlene is the girl in the photograph and asks Jones to reserve him a table. Ignatius recommends Boethius to Jones and goes to the docks, where he sells all of his hot dogs. When he arrives home, Mrs. Reilly and Santa are talking conspiratorially on the phone about Robichaux and the prospects of remarriage. When Mrs. Reilly reaches into Ignatius’s pocket, searching for his wages, she finds the photograph and begins to cry. The telephone rings; Mr. Levy is searching for Ignatius, who answers in a mock accent and tells Mr. Levy that Ignatius has been taken to a “state mental hospital” (261).
Chapter 12 Summary
On the morning of the political rally, Ignatius receives an urgent letter from Myrna in response to his own telegram. She is “very worried” and believes that Ignatius might be becoming a homosexual (262). Her own lecture was “not exactly a success” (263). All of this delights Ignatius, who argues against his mother’s fear; she is worried that he is turning “communiss” and recommends the psychiatric ward (264). She does not like his “pirate finery,” though Ignatius believes that “a scarf here. A cutlass there […] the total effect is rather fetching” (265). Working herself into a fervor, Mrs. Reilly forbids Ignatius from leaving the house. He runs from the house and catches a taxi to Charles Avenue, practicing his speech en route. Dorian Greene answers the door to the party and welcomes Ignatius inside the “repellingly flamboyant” building (268). Inside, Ignatius hears a cry and—fearing a conspiracy—bursts through a door to find Timmy chained up, begging to be beaten.
They enter the party to the strains of Judy Garland. The people inside seem “more concerned about their own private fates” than about Ignatius (273). Dorian takes Ignatius to the kitchen to meet the “ladies’ auxiliary,” which consists of three women drinking beer (273). The women begin to fight, so Ignatius lumbers out of the kitchen.
Back in the party, Ignatius tells Dorian to “turn off that offensive music and quiet these sodomites” (276). When Dorian is hesitant, Ignatius rushes the record player and unplugs it from the wall, bellowing for silence as the guests complain. As he screams about the state of the world, the complaints intensify. Dorian takes the side of his guests and signals for the record to be played again. Everyone ignores Ignatius. The guests begin to dance, riling Ignatius further. Just when he is about to “evanesce completely,” the women enter (278). Timmy, entering late, asks Ignatius if he wants to dance. When he refuses, the women attack him and the fight spills over onto the dance floor. The women deny shoving Ignatius into a man dressed as a cowboy, and Dorian asks Ignatius to leave. The women escort him from the property and throw him into the street. Ignatius rages against the exterior of the building with his cutlass before deciding to visit the Night of Joy; he is followed by a man in a silk suit.
Jones is outside the bar, trying to attract customers. He asks Ignatius about the fake earing and cutlass, but Ignatius dismisses the question. Assured that the “Nazi proprietress” is away, Ignatius enters and finds a table directly beside the stage (283). He still believes the stage performer to be the woman from the photograph and plans to seduce her with his knowledge of Boethius. The bartender pretends not to see Ignatius, who eventually waves over a woman with terrible breath and orders a Dr. Nut. She returns, telling Ignatius that his choice is not available but offering a $24 bottle of champagne instead, bringing two glasses with her. Ignatius refuses it and orders the woman from the table. Lana takes to the stage, and Ignatius panics. As Lana welcomes the patrons, the woman with bad breath demands payment for the champagne. When Ignatius peers out from under the table, the act has begun.
Darlene takes to the stage in her “yards of nylon net” fitted with rings, which allow the cockatoo to undress her (285). As the bad-breath woman whispers threats in her ear, he exclaims loudly about the show. The cockatoo spies Ignatius’s gold earring, and Darlene recognizes him from the stage. Before he can run, the bird grabs hold of his earring and attempts to rip it free with its beak. As Ignatius fights it off, the champagne bottle smashes on the floor. He staggers toward the door. Lana is screaming for Jones. The bird flaps around Ignatius’s head. The woman with bad breath demands money. Ignatius knocks over another table. The bird finally rips the earring free as Ignatius stumbles out of the door, past a surprised Jones. Ignatius stumbles into the road in front of an oncoming bus. The tires screech. Ignatius faints. Before the bus can hit him, Jones drags Ignatius to safety. Ignatius collapses into a heap on the street.
As Lana and the other characters watch over him, the man in the silk suit steps from the shadows. It is Mancuso, who tells people to give the unconscious Ignatius space. Lana fires Jones and Darlene, as well as the woman with bad breath. While she tries to encourage the gathering crowd into her bar, everyone stares at Ignatius. Mancuso asks to use the phone in the bar to call an ambulance. Spotting a chance to do business, Lana shows Mancuso a copy of the pornographic photograph and asks him “how’d you like to spend an evening with that?” (288). Mancuso places her under arrest for “soliciting and possession of pornography” (288). At that moment, the three women from the party “stomped into the crowd surrounding Ignatius” (288).
Chapters 11-12 Analysis
The chapters outlined above contain many of the books most combative and confrontational scenes. Chaos reigns at Dorian’s party and at the Night of Joy, both situations in which the consequences and realities of Ignatius’s life catch up to him. At the party, he must come face-to-face with the fact that very few people are willing to follow his grandiose ideas. At the bar, he is punished for his strange decisions (wearing the pirate costume and attempting to seduce the model in a pornographic picture). On both occasions, the character of Ignatius Reilly is forced to confront his own shortcomings and, as a result, is almost killed by a bus and ends up facedown in the gutter surrounded by a baying crowd. At his lowest moment, Ignatius finally captures the attention of those around him. The ultimate irony is that he is not conscious and thus unable to enjoy the moment.
The party scene represents the failure of Ignatius’s political praxis. He has already attempted a similar move (organizing the factory workers at Levy Pants) and has failed miserably. At the party, he lacks the self-awareness to realize that Dorian is treating him as a novelty rather than a serious political figure. When Ignatius enters, his self-delusion is at its peak. He hopes to lead a movement for world peace built on the most fragile of ideological foundations. No one else at the party takes this plan seriously. Instead, Ignatius is the entertainment, a distraction from the humdrum outside world that is prejudiced against homosexuals. In reality, Ignatius is unable to accept his true place or the nature of his situation. Even when told to stop, he persists. He tries to rally the guests to his cause and is unable to note their lack of enthusiasm. Even minor points of contention demonstrate how far Ignatius is from Dorian. At Levy Pants, Ignatius hanged crepe paper banners around the office, which Dorian refers to as “tacky crepe paper” (273); while Ignatius believes his outfit to be fetching, Dorian considers it to be a tremendous joke. The two men are diametrically opposed, and Ignatius’s failure to recognize his kitsch, camp entertainment value results in disaster for the entire party. Dorian is perpetually self-aware, while Ignatius is the opposite. Thus, the two will never be able to reconcile their differences, and disaster is inevitable.
The Night of Joy represents the culmination of all of Ignatius’s minor mistakes. If Dorian’s party is a repudiation of Ignatius’s ideology, then the bar is a repudiation of Ignatius’s character and his actions. At the beginning of the novel, the bar was a safe haven. It was a place where Ignatius and his mother could hide after Ignatius was almost arrested. But their presence was not welcome, and they were told not to return. Structurally, the return to the bar represents a return to these earlier mistakes. In the meantime, many important events have occurred. Darlene has become disenchanted with her old line of work after hearing Ignatius’s dull stories; Jones is determined to sabotage the bar and has welcomed Ignatius inside, aware of his reputation; Ignatius has fitted himself with a gold earring, even though he has been frequently told not to wear it; and the pornography ring has become more and more intertwined with Ignatius’s life, with products stored in his cart and his book being used as a prop, which causes him to fall in love with the model. By the time Ignatius returns to the bar, his actions have created a potentially disastrous situation and, as events play out, Ignatius is punished for his previous mistakes. The earring is ripped out by a bird; Darlene recognizes Ignatius and has him removed from the bar; Jones is only barely able to save Ignatius from being hit by a bus; and the pornography ring attracts the attention of the police, resulting in Ignatius’s picture being plastered over the front page. Even Ignatius’s earlier animosity with the lesbians at Dorian’s party leads to a brawl in the street. As he lays in the gutter, having his photograph taken, Ignatius is finally experiencing the consequences of his terrible decisions.
