Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy
Boethius's The Consolation of Philosophy is Ignatius's favorite book. He refers to it constantly throughout the novel, and when he sees a pornographic picture of a nude woman reading it, he ju...
Costumes
Beatniks and Santa ClausIt seems like everyone dresses up in A Confederacy of Dunces. Officer Mancuso is forced by his sergeant to wear a series of ridiculous undercover outfits—a fake beard, a b...
Movies
Looking at screens will rot your brains and turn your eyes into vast wastelands of putrefying vacuousness. Everybody knows this, pretty much. Television with its real American idols of New Jersey a...
The Valve
The valve that Ignatius always refers to is his pyloric valve—a ring of muscle that controls the movement of food from the stomach to the small intestine (2.6).As a symbol, the valve (appropriate...
Shout Outs
As you'll see if you go to the "Facts" section, Confederacy of Dunces includes a lot of allusions—we're talking historical, literary, pop culture, places in New Orleans, movies, advertisements, a...