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Chapter 4, Part 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Confederacy of Dunces, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Medievalism, Modernity, and Fate
The Legacy of Slavery
Sexuality, Attraction, and Repulsion
Freedom
Appearance, Identity, and Disguise
Hypocrisy and Self-Interest
Summary
Analysis
At the Night of Joy, Jones asks Lana if she has seen Ignatius hanging around recently. Lana says no, and Jones asks why the orphans pay her so much for her “charity.” Lana says that she likes to do good deeds. Jones laughs and says that the police would be interested in these orphans. Lana thinks about the undercover policemen who have begun to frequent the bar and wonders if Jones has tipped them off. She asks him if he has been to the station recently and Jones says no; he is waiting for some evidence in the orphan case.
Jones suspects that Lana uses the orphan story as a front to hide criminal activity. He implies that, although Lana pretends to be charitable, she is really only interested in helping herself. Jones’s hint about turning Lana into the police shows that he has found a potential way to gain back some power over his situation, given that Lara has threatened to turn Jones into the police for vagrancy if he tries to quit his job.
Themes
