A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCESAP Language and Composition

Questions on style:

The level of formality a writer uses to communicate to an audience, directly and through characters, is significant. Excessively simple words can telegraph condescension towards a character or an audience.The vernacular is using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary or cultured language—dialect. Conversely, highly complicated, ornate language can indicate intellectual superiority that warrants mockery.

  1. Which character uses the vernacular exclusively? Find two examples of this character’s vernacular speech and copy them down. Explain why the vernacular makes this character more vivid, authentic and comic.
  2. Which character uses elevated or formal diction most frequently? Find two examples of this character’s formal diction and copy them down. What does this elevated speech pattern suggest about the author’s attitude toward this character?
  3. Excerpts for close reading analysis that help determine tone:
  • P88 The short pants letter. Determine tone and which words help to determine tone (starting with “absurd” in first sentence). What is Ignatius’s claim? How does he support it?
  • P136 (last sentence) “We shall storm the office very shortly, thereby surprising the foe when his senses are still subject to the psychic mists of morning.” Rephrase this in plain language. Note alliteration. Use of formal diction creates what effect? Identify conflicting images here. How does it seem to legitimize/diminish Ignatius’s coup?
  • P137 (5th para) “Now this we will carry…intricate blue script”
  • Ignatius’s speech to the workers. Crusade for Moorish Dignity. Same questions as last passage (define Moorish, crusade, dignity). Identify tone.
  • See page3 (last para) “Is it the part of the police department…bothering me.” Explain the effect of the catalogue of nouns that Ignatius uses. Who is his target? Who is his audience?

Questions on Strategy and Audience:

  1. Allusions are the reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, politics, sports, science or some other branch of culture. Identify three allusions used in A Confederacy of Dunces. To what kind of audience is Toole attempting to appeal?
  2. Does A Confederacy of Dunces direct its criticism or commentary toward any specific group or groups? Choose one topic from each category above and provide evidence of the criticism or commentary.
  3. How is A Confederacy of Dunces organized? Why do you think the author used this particular organization, and to what extent do you think this organizational strategy is effective? Why?
  4. Is A Confederacy of Dunces persuasive? Review your response to #2; has this text helped you to locate a moral within it and revise your position on one of these topics?
  5. Using the definition of satire provided above, explain the title of this novel.

Questions on Subject and Purpose:

  1. Why does Toole:
  • have the police sergeant force Patrolman Mancuso to wear a different costume everyday?
  • have Lana Lee’s guise for her high school pornography ring be a charity for orphans?
  • have Mrs. Reilly turn against Mr. Robichaux in the first scene and ultimately agree to marry him at the end?
  1. Read the excerpt on pages 320-22 (“You must stop all of this”)- (“They’d bitch at their own mother”). What stereotypes does narrator/author employ in this scene? Is this scene humorous, offensive, neither or both?
  1. Overall, do you find A Confederacy of Dunces’s purpose to be noble? A condemnation? A gentle mockery? Lovingly tolerant?
  1. Using the definitions provided, explain the title of this novel.