Hypocrisy and Self-Interest Theme Analysis

Throughout the novel, many of the characters pretend to act on the behalf of others. For instance, Mrs. Levy has her mind set on transforming the life and appearance of Miss Trixie, her husband’s elderly employee, while Ignatius is determined to start political upheavals in order to impress his ex-girlfriend, Myrna. However, although characters like these want to think of themselves as philanthropic, most of them are merely hypocrites who pretend to act with other people’s best interests in mind—really, they are just out to help themselves. Toole thus suggests that it does not take much to convince people that their actions are justified, especially when they can convince themselves that they are behaving charitably, and that people, in general, look out for their own interests before they take other people’s needs into account. 

Many of the characters undertake seemingly selfless acts throughout the novel. Mrs. Levy is endlessly proud of her own philanthropy because she adopts Miss Trixie, an elderly employee at Levy Pants, as a cause and tries to help Miss Trixie transform her life. Throughout the novel, Mrs. Levy is dedicated to helping Miss Trixie remain employed and views this as a great struggle against her husband, Mr. Levy, who wants to let Miss Trixie retire. This suggests that Mrs. Levy views herself as a virtuous person, who has other people’s best interests in mind. Similarly, Santa Battaglia, Patrolman Mancuso’s aunt, befriends Irene Reilly after Patrolman Mancuso tries to arrest Irene’s son, Ignatius. Santa gives the impression of being a generous woman who is intent on matchmaking for Irene—she tries to set Irene up with an acquaintance named Claude Robichaux. Like Mrs. Levy with Miss Trixie, Santa adopts the role of protector towards Irene and seems to feel that she is performing a charitable service through her interference in Irene’s life. Toole suggests that it is common for people to believe that they are helping others when really their actions are self-interested. This is demonstrated through Ignatius, who is extremely misanthropic but still feels that, eventually, he will help save humanity because he will write a book which will teach people how to behave properly. This suggests that even people who seem outwardly hostile towards others are subject to this type of vanity and can begin to see themselves as saviors for people who are seemingly less fortunate than themselves. 

However, although the characters may view their actions as selfless, they usually have an ulterior motive. Mrs. Levy is not really concerned about Miss Trixie’s welfare and, in fact, only wants an excuse to lambast Mr. Levy, whom she picks on throughout the novel. Miss Trixie is desperate to retire and despises the Mrs. Levy because she will not let her. This suggests that Mrs. Levy’s ulterior motive is her desire to dominate her husband and take on the self-aggrandizing role of hero or savior, to make herself seem important. Rather than openly bully Mr. Levy, Mrs. Levy convinces herself that Mr. Levy is the bully and that she must stand up for his victims, such as Miss Trixie. This implies that Mrs. Levy’s motivation is, in reality, self-interested rather than selfless, but that she denies this to herself. Santa’s plan to set Irene up with Claude also seems to be driven by a desire for control, rather than by genuinely selfless motives. Santa is pushy with Irene, who at first shows little interest in Claude. Even though Santa gets Irene out of the house and breaks her overly dependent bond with Ignatius, Santa also convinces Irene to place her son in a mental asylum—a controlling and destructive move the reader can safely assume that Irene will regret later. Again, Ignatius is the most extreme and parodic version of these traits. When he tries to organize a party of gay men to overthrow the government, Ignatius claims that he is acting for the greater social good (to bring about world peace), when really he is behaving selfishly and only wants to impress his ex-girlfriend, Myrna. This suggests that people often have ulterior motives for seemingly generous behavior, but that they often hide these motives even from themselves. 

Many of the novel’s characters are punished for their selfish behavior, making it clear that their so-called charitable acts were anything but. Some of the characters face negative consequences as a direct result of their selfish or hypocritical behavior. For example, Mrs. Levy’s attempt to use Miss Trixie to get back at her husband ultimately does not pay off—Miss Trixie spoils Mrs. Levy’s plans and reverses Mrs. Levy’s position of power in her marriage. Mr. Levy proves that Miss Trixie hates Mrs. Levy, and therefore no longer has to tolerate Mrs. Levy’s bullying, which Mrs. Levy claims is on Miss Trixie’s behalf. This demonstrates that selfish actions often have negative consequences. The novel makes a distinction between characters who try to control others to their own selfish ends and those who act out of self-interest to improve their situation. For example, although Irene is partly interested in Claude for his money, she is also interested in having a relationship and being treated kindly, instead of tolerating Ignatius’s selfish demands. Irene, therefore, it is suggested, gets a (somewhat) happy ending when she becomes engaged to Claude. Although she does have her own best interests in mind, her behavior also positively impacts Claude. In contrast, characters like Lana Lee, who is only out for herself and uses other people like Jones to advance her own position without benefiting him in any way, is punished at the novel’s conclusion. This suggests that selfishness is not necessarily a bad thing (and is, in fact, a perfectly natural motivating factor in most people’s lives) but that taking such an attitude too far will inevitably reap negative consequences. The novel draws a distinction between blind self-interest, which only advances one’s own position and uses other people purely for this end (often while pretending to help the people that it exploits) and a desire to help oneself and to improve one’s own situation, which Toole suggests is something to which everyone is susceptible.