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 9-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
Mr. Clyde informs Ignatius of a complaint from the Board of Health. He has been spotted lifting a cat out of the gutter in the warehouse district. Ignatius claims that cats are “notoriously sanitary” and claims that he feels unappreciated at Paradise Vendors (182). Clyde agrees to give him one more chance and wants to send Ignatius to the French Quarter. Reluctantly, Ignatius agrees.
When Ignatius arrives home, his mother falls to her knees and asks God why she must bear this “terrible cross” (185). Then she asks Ignatius whether he is a “communiss” (186). When he vehemently denies the accusation, she suggests that he needs help. A letter has arrived from Myrna, and Ignatius begins to read it. She criticizes his previous letter, brags about her new acquaintances, and again encourages Ignatius to have sex. He finishes the letter and throws it into the garbage, then argues with his mother until a neighbor tells them to be quiet.
Lana sits on a barstool watching Darlene’s dress rehearsal. She bickers with Jones, both threatening to call the police on each other. Darlene begins her clumsy dance with her cockatoo on her arm, which begins to undress her. Lana calls the act to a halt and gives Darlene advice on how to sell her striptease properly. They reimagine the act in a Gone With the Wind style, and Jones reluctantly agrees to stand out front on opening night in as a “Real Old South doorman” (194). When Lana takes Darlene out into the alley for a violent argument, Jones spots the brown packages behind the bar. He writes the bar’s address on each one.
Mancuso begs with his sergeant to be taken out of the bathroom. After a moment of consideration, the sergeant sends Mancuso out on the streets. He has two weeks to catch a criminal or he will be “off the force” (196). Mancuso exits, promising to do better while wearing “a baseball cap and a Santa Claus outfit” (196).
Ignatius writes while ignoring his mother. He describes Mr. Clyde’s resentment and jealousy. Ignatius is not happy at being sent to the French Quarter to tackle the tourist trade. While on his route, Ignatius wears an attempt at a pirate costume, including a plastic cutlass. A brief fight ensues between Ignatius and Clyde, after which Ignatius realizes that Clyde “was really trying to kill me” (199). During his rounds, Ignatius imagines his own funeral and how upset his mother would be. The trip to the French Quarter tires Ignatius, so he stops to sit on a bench and falls asleep, only to be woken by a policeman. When he finally arrives, Ignatius “grudgingly” sells a hot dog (201). Tourists ask for a photograph with him and his cart. Mancuso approaches, dressed as “an improbable satire of a tourist” (202). Mancuso insists that he is enjoying Ignatius’s book, and Ignatius demands a “written critique and analysis” when Mancuso is finished (203). The lack of trade leads Ignatius to deem the route a “white elephant,” and he finishes by commenting on his “astonishing weight increase,” which he blames on his mother (203).
Dr. Talc listens to a young girl praise his lectures and considers inviting her for a drink. He compares her very favorably to Myrna Minkoff, his former student. Talc will never forget her and “the Reilly monster” (204). The tone of the conversation changes when the girl asks about a report she handed in two months before. In shifting the items on his desk, Talc dislodges a paper plane. Written on the paper is an insulting screed, signed “ZORRO” (205). The girl drops the page into her purse as Talc continues to search.
Chapter 10 Summary
As Christmas approaches, Mr. Levy’s daughters return home. Mrs. Levy applies skin cream to Trixie’s face; Trixie has become assertive to the point of being aggressive. Mr. Levy has considered selling Levy Pants, but realtors have described it as “the most unsalable property they’d ever seen” (208). Mr. Levy is stunned to find that his wife has dressed Trixie to look “exactly like Mrs. Levy’s mother” (209).
Jones sits in a bar and discusses working at the Night of Joy. He worries about quitting, lest the police arrest him for being “vagran,” and believes Lana knows people on the force (210). Asking what happened to Ignatius, he wonders whether he could introduce “that dumb mother” to the bar to cause chaos (210).
Ignatius is even more gaseous than usual. He has been consuming too many hot dogs, and his mother’s recent turn to antagonism concerns him. Furthermore, he has been haunted by dreams of Myrna. In Pirate’s Alley, he struggles to sell any hot dogs. Studying an art show in the alley, he declares the pieces to be “abortions” and is asked to leave (213). Arguing with the artists, he leaves and lays down in an alley behind a cathedral to rest. A voice mocks him from above and, when Ignatius looks, he recognizes the man as having bought his mother’s hat in the Night of Joy. Insulted, Ignatius draws his plastic cutlass and tries to attack the man. Under a barrage of insults, the sword breaks. The man worries that the sharp plastic will tear his sweater, so he runs as Ignatius slashes at him. Ceasing their fight, they threaten to sue one another. They spot a sailor named Timmy being followed by “that marvelous policeman,” Mancuso, whose costumes have become a well-loved running joke in the community (218). Ignatius conjures a solution to world peace in which all nations are led by “deranged old sodomites” and asks whether the man has ever considered running for political office (219). The man agrees to throw a “wild gathering” at which Ignatius will deliver a lecture on political organization (221). The man hands Ignatius his card, and Ignatius is surprised that his name is Dorian Greene.
George worries about holding on to the packages for too long. He has sought refuge in the cathedral, hoping no one will bother him while he waits for Lana. Leaving the cathedral, he witnesses a crazed argument between a hot dog vendor, who is “trying to stab a fairy with a plastic knife” (225). Spotting Mancuso on the street, George runs. He is amazed that the undercover cop seems correctly suspicious of him. Onboard a bus, he passes the bar and sees Lana outside with Jones. As the bus travels further, he realizes the best place to hide his packages: “the bun compartment in that oddball vendor’s wagon” (226).
Chapters 9-10 Analysis
The novel employs several different perspectives, often switching points of view between paragraphs. The story can jump from Ignatius to his mother to Mancuso, all observed from an omniscient third-person perspective, before switching to a first-person point of view when Ignatius writes in his letters. The varying points of view allow for differing insights into the characters. The third-person perspective allows the narration to stand back and view the intertwined events through an objective lens, while Ignatius’s letters reveal his own subjective biases and prejudices, making them all the more apparent.
Ignatius’s letters to Myrna and his political and historical writings are when the novel switches to a first-person perspective. Ignatius writes either as himself (as he does to Myrna) or uses an alias (such as the Working Boy) when writing political screeds. Furthermore, he employs the nickname ZORRO when writing his threatening letters to Dr. Talc. The style and tenor of his writing depend on which alias (if any) Ignatius is using at the time. The letters written as ZORRO, for instance, are threatening, libelous, and directed at a single individual. While writing as the Working Boy, Ignatius imagines a wide audience who will be inspired by his words to launch into a politically charged uprising against the various enemies he outlines. While writing to Myrna, he is insulting, braggadocios, and curt. Myrna knows Ignatius too well, so he is unable to employ his usual literary flourishes, as she will cut right through them. Instead, he has a habit of sending her telegrams and rude messages that call for her to be whipped or punished and mock the achievements she outlines in her own messages. The audience-dependent writing styles reveal the insecurity at the heart of Ignatius J. Reilly: He is happy to talk in the grandest possible terms when anonymous or using a pseudonym, but when he is addressing a person who knows him better than anyone else (Myrna), a large amount of these stylistic tendencies fall away, and Ignatius is left with pure insults, many of which project his own insecurities onto the recipient.
