A Confederacy of Dunces

Chapters 1-2

1. D.H. Holmes (Chapter 1)

2. 30 years old (Chapter 1)

3. Baton Rouge (Chapter 1)

4. Collie (Chapter 2)

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Mrs. Reilly crashes her car into a post that supports the bar’s wrought-iron balcony, causing the balcony to collapse. The settlement payment would be to repair the balcony (Chapter 2)

2. He takes a job at Night of Joy to earn money and to keep the police away from him. (Chapter 2)

Chapters 3-4

Reading Check

1. An insurance company (Chapter 3)

2. A soldier’s uniform (Chapter 3)

3. Vaseline (Chapter 3)

4. Medusa (Chapter 3)

5. Custodian of the Department of Research and Reference (Chapter 4)

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. The book relates Ignatius’s general experience in the working world and details the innovations he has implemented at Levy Pants. (Chapter 4)

2. Levy Pants serves as a metaphor for the state of big business in 1960s America and the corruption of the capitalist working world. (Chapter 4)

Chapters 5-6

Reading Check

1. A cockatoo (Chapter 5)

2. His valve (Chapter 5)

3. Kurtz from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (Chapter 5)

4. In the cafeteria at their university (Chapter 5)

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. They essentially ignore Ignatius and refuse to join his protest. The entire ordeal results in Ignatius being fired from Levy’s Pants. (Chapter 6)

2. Through the character of Jones, the reader is shown the lived experience of the working conditions of a Black man in America. Through the character of Ignatius, the reader is shown an academic understanding of capitalist machinations. (Chapter 6)

Chapters 7-8

Reading Check

1. Hot dog-shaped food carts (Chapter 7)

2. Stripping (Chapter 7)

3. Gloria (Chapter 8)

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Ignatius gives Mancuso a book by the Roman philosopher Boethius. It’s significant because it demonstrates Ignatius’s pretentiousness. (Chapter 8)

2. Robichaux becomes the love interest of Mrs. Reilly, and the hot dog vendor who Ignatius dismisses in the opening chapter becomes his employer. (Chapter 8)

Chapters 9-10

Reading Check

1. For lifting a cat out of the gutter (Chapter 9)

2. Myrna (Chapter 9)

3. A plastic cutlass (Chapter 9)

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Dorian Greene mocks Ignatius, so Ignatius briefly fights him using his plastic sword. When the physical fight ceases, both threaten to sue the other. (Chapter 10)

2. In Chapters 9 and 10, POVs include Ignatius, Jones, Mrs. Reilly, and Mancuso. This allows for closer insights into these characters’ lives while also enhancing the overall portrayal of New Orleans. (Chapter 9 and Chapter 10)

Chapters 11-12

Reading Check

1. PEACE TO MEN OF GOOD WILL (Chapter 11)

2. $500,000 (Chapter 11)

3. Darlene (Chapter 11)

4. Judy Garland (Chapter 12)

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. He is only doing it to make Myrna envious, not out of any genuine sense of goodwill. (Chapter 11)

2. Ignatius announces to the party that he hopes to lead a movement for world peace, but he does not realize that everyone at the party sees him as a joke and no one is taking him seriously. (Chapter 12)

Chapters 13-14

Reading Check

1. Mrs. Reilly (Chapter 13)

2. $20 (Chapter 13)

3. Robichaux (Chapter 13)

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Lana is jailed; Darlene is unemployed; Darlene’s cockatoo has a new favorite toy (Ignatius’s novelty earring); Jones complains that his sabotage was too effective and asks Manscuso to put in a good word for him at the police station. (Chapter 13)

2. He coincidentally meets Myrna outside of his house, and she drives him away in her Renault, thereby sneaking past the Charity ambulance on the way to collect Ignatius. (Chapter 14)