More than a decade later, Dunces was finally published and became a Pulitzer Prize-winning hit.

The text wouldn’t have even seen the light of day if the mother of its author, John Kennedy Toole, hadn’t stumbled upon the manuscript after Toole’s suicide. Although he claims to hate humanity, Ignatius often comes across as a slightly sad and socially alienated character who is searching for genuine emotional and intellectual connection.The novel A Confederacy of Dunces has never had an easy existence. Eventually, Ignatius’s idiosyncrasies nearly cause his undoing, as Irene’s friend Santa convinces her to institutionalize Ignatius-a fate he narrowly escapes by running away with Myrna. Ignatius does, indeed, stand out in a crowd because of his enormous size and unusual style of dress-he insists on wearing shabby clothing and a fur-lined hunting cap even in the year-round hot climate of Louisiana. Since he views himself as superior to modern society, Ignatius believes that society is jealous and afraid of him, and therefore seeks to punish him. Ignatius is extremely self-centered and assured of his intellectual prowess, convinced that he is in the process of writing a masterpiece though he only writes a page or so a month. However, he attempts to engage in progressive politics several times throughout the novel because he knows that this will annoy Myrna. Ignatius is extremely conservative and judgmental of others, and he hates progressive politics. However, this rejection of sexuality seems to be a reflection of Ignatius’s own repressed sexual deviancy, not a genuine conviction. He engages in a love/hate relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Myrna Minkoff, whom he views as obsessed with sex and morally corrupt. Ignatius also feels that modern society is hypersexualized and hates promiscuous women. Ignatius despises the trappings of capitalism and modern society and hates contemporary popular culture, yet he is obsessed with movies and television, which he loves to hate, and attends the cinema regularly. Clyde’s hot dog stand business but spends most of his shift eating the food himself. Levy’s textile factory (at the desperate pleas of Irene), and there he shirks his duties and sabotages the business. Despite his academic success, Ignatius is extremely lazy and greedy he still lives at home with his mother in New Orleans and refuses to get a job. Ignatius is convinced that culture and society have been in decline ever since. Ignatius is well-educated, specializing in the medieval period during his university studies, an era which he believes was the high point of Western civilization. He is a 30-year-old self-styled philosopher and social commentator. Reilly is the son of Irene Reilly and Mr.

A of dunces