Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Confederacy of Dunces, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Medievalism, Modernity, and Fate
The Legacy of Slavery
Sexuality, Attraction, and Repulsion
Freedom
Appearance, Identity, and Disguise
Hypocrisy and Self-Interest
Summary
Analysis
Dorian Greene puts his apartment up for rent and finishes cleaning up after the party. Without Betty, Frieda, and Liz (who will be in jail for a while) there is no one to protect him or the property. Dorian thinks that if the girls had been nicer, someone would have warned them about Patrolman Mancuso, and they would not have attacked him. Dorian wonders if Ignatius is alright and thinks that he must feel terrible with all the negative publicity.
As a gay man, Dorian lives in opposition to conventional society and faces significant threats to his safety and freedom. Homosexuality was illegal in 1960s America, which this suggests that although the country prided itself on being a free society, people who did not conform to mainstream beliefs were targets of persecution and incarceration, even when their unconventional behavior did not hurt anyone.
Themes
