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 the police station, Patrolman Mancuso begs the sergeant to let him out of the bus station bathroom. He has a terrible cold and says that, if he is not let out of the bathroom soon, he is going to die. At first, the sergeant is disgusted by Mancuso and calls him weak. When he hears Mancuso’s cough, however, he reconsiders—he does not want to be responsible for a death—and says that Mancuso may go out on the street and try to bring someone in. Mancuso swears that he will try, and the sergeant sends him off to fetch his costume for the day. Mancuso will be dressed as Santa Claus.
Patrolman Mancuso’s incarceration in the bathroom mirrors the Roman philosopher Boethius’s imprisonment, during which time he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, on which Ignatius bases his worldview and which he lent to Mancuso. The Consolation of Philosophy also outlines the idea that humans cannot control their own fate but are at the whims of the goddess Fortuna, who is the supreme authority on destiny. Mancuso’s sergeant parodies Fortuna in this sense, as he arbitrarily controls Mancuso’s fate from a distance.
Themes
