A Confederacy of Dunces: Chapter 1, Part 1 Summary & Analysis

The opening passage establishes Ignatius as an individual who is staunchly opposed to modern conventions. The department store symbolizes modern society, from which Ignatius feels he is separate. Ignatius, similarly, distances himself from the people in the crowd, who wear modern clothing. Although, of course, Ignatius’s clothes are also modern, he takes no pride in them, and therefore views himself as separate from modernity, which he thinks is vain and obsessed with image. Ironically, however, Ignatius is just as preoccupied with appearance as the others in the crowd, as he, too, thinks about what his clothes represent and how they make him look compared to others.

Ignatius is hypocritical here—he convinces himself that he wants to help Irene (who he believes gets out of control without his censorship) when, really, he just wants to control her. It is ironic that Ignatius despises modernity because the things he enjoys are modern. This suggests that Ignatius does not always understand his desires and is both attracted to and repelled by many aspects of modernity.

Cities represent modernity and capitalist production, things that Ignatius despises. However, Ignatius is again shown to be hypocritical as he enjoys many of the benefits of modern capitalism, and the leisure activities it produces, such as the game machine. The policeman symbolizes a threat to freedom and supports Ignatius’s idea that modern life is not free.

Although there is a general preoccupation with freedom in American culture, Ignatius’s interactions with Patrolman Mancuso suggests that American culture is not as free as it appears. This encounter shows that people may be arbitrarily arrested if they merely look out of place, or that they are required carry ID cards with them. These standards are not generally associated with free societies, but are common in totalitarian societies, such as the Soviet Union, a communist country which America went to war with during the 20th century. This suggests that American attitudes toward freedom in the 1960s (when the story is set) are hypocritical, since the U.S. is freer in theory than it is in practice.

Irene’s conversation gives the reader a picture of Ignatius’s home and romantic life. The fact that Ignatius takes long baths suggests that he has little to do all day and is not a productive member of society. Since modern America is a capitalist society, it places an emphasis on productivity as a virtue because this is what drives the economy. This supports the idea that Ignatius does not fit into modern society, and the fact that his girlfriend has left suggests that he is romantically and sexually alienated as well.

The old man’s accusation of the police being “communiss” reflects the general paranoia about communism that pervaded the U.S. during this time. Communism was associated with authoritarianism in 1960s America because of the U.S.’s involvement in the Cold War with Russia, which was communist at the time. Although America was democratic, and was a liberal society compared with totalitarian Russia, there was a widespread feeling that state authorities in America, like the police, had too much power over citizens, whom they could arrest on thin pretexts. There was also concern that governmental power might increase in America and that this would mimic that of communist countries.

Laws against vagrancy in New Orleans during the 1960s meant that it was illegal to be unemployed—it was essentially forbidden to be an unproductive citizen under capitalism, a system driven by productivity. On an ideological level, this is not so different from the enforced labor which existed in communist countries like Russia, which America viewed as a threat to democracy and freedom. Irene is quick to justify Ignatius’s unemployment because she knows that, if he is discovered to be unproductive, he will be considered a criminal in American society.

Irene’s response reflects widespread fear of totalitarianism in American society and supports the idea that Irene, who has lived through the Cold War, is afraid that people’s freedoms will be taken away, either by communists or by authoritarian governments. This supports the idea that, among older generations in the 1960s, there was a widespread concern about protecting one’s rights. Patrolman Mancuso’s behavior suggests that he is willing to arrest almost anyone, so long as they look suspicious, purely for the sake of making an arrest. Toole implies that this is the role of the police in society and that, so long as state authority is given free reign, there will inevitably be groups who are unfairly persecuted.

This passage shows that, although Irene is suspicious of authority, she is equally suspicious of Ignatius and, in fact, believes it is more likely that Ignatius is in the wrong. This suggests that Irene is not anti-authority but, in fact, believes that government authority is necessary to protect people’s freedom from those who commit crimes or do not comply with society’s rules.

Ignatius’s reluctance to sit at the bar suggests that he ideologically rejects indulgence in vices like alcohol, and likely views this club as yet another symptom of modernity’s corruption. Ignatius’s cap symbolizes his individuality because it makes him stand out. He will not remove it because he is not willing to compromise his values or beliefs and his hat shows that he believes he is morally superior to the other customers.

This introduces the reader to Ignatius’s aversion toward human intimacy. Ignatius is a misanthropic character and tends to despise others or feel superior toward them. Ignatius is also extremely conservative—not only in his political and philosophical views, but also in that he dislikes change—and even a short trip out of the city has proven to be too much for him. Heart of Darkness is a novel by Joseph Conrad about a man who journeys into an Africa colony under European rule in the late 1900s. The novel contrasts the war-torn, colonized country the man travels into with the order of the narrator’s previous life. Ignatius relates to this idea because he sees any alteration in his circumstances, or in society, as a descent into chaos. Toole uses this comparison to comically highlight how dramatic Ignatius is about change.

Ignatius is so averse to and afraid of change that he will not take an opportunity which might be good for him. As a medieval scholar, Ignatius would likely make a good medieval professor. It is implied that Ignatius’s avoidance of change and superiority complex—he wants to believe he is morally pure in comparison to the “corrupt” department—are ways to protect himself and avoid risking failure.

Ignatius generally lacks social graces because of his superiority complex: he treats the barman as though he is inferior to them. Irene, by contrast, is better at judging social situations and tries to appease the barman. Ignatius looks down on working people because he feels that they have sold their freedom for conventional, material comfort. He does not realize that, for most people, freedom is dependent upon being able to earn a living and meet one’s basic needs.