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
In her apartment, Darlene puts away her Harlett O’Hara dress and wonders what she will do for a job now that the Night of Joy has been shut down. Lana was right about Ignatius—he was a harbinger of doom for the club. Darlene’s phone rings. It is a man who wants to offer her a job because of the press coverage she received the night before.
Darlene is out of a job because of Lana’s criminal activity. However, although her situation seems bleak, fate intervenes on Darlene’s behalf and, in the confusion of the night before, her picture appears in the paper. Although Darlene does not believe in Ignatius’s medieval concept of fate as something beyond humanity’s control, fortune seems to reward Darlene for her generally well-meaning behavior, and her career takes off after all.
Themes
