John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces depicts the grotesque Ignatius J. Reilly as he waddles through the streets of 1960 New Orleans. In the beginning of the novel, Ignatius is the passenger of a car crash piloted by his mother, Irene Reilly, who drunkenly crashes into the front of a building which launches them into severe debt. Mrs. Reilly, who is becoming increasingly frustrated with the sporadic behaviors of Ignatius, decides her son must finally get a job to help pay off the damages of car crash. Ignatius finds his first job at a company named Levy Pants. After doing very little work, becoming an enemy to most of his coworkers, and organizing a rebellion of the factory works, Ignatius is fired and sullenly returns to his angry mother. On a forced job hunt the next morning, Ignatius stumbles upon a mobile hotdog vending service named Paradise Vendors. To his mother’s …show more content…
Ignatius was a fat slob, and everyone around him knew it. When officer Mancuso was asked to describe Ignatius, he said, “He was big fat man dressed funny” (Toole 16). Mancuso’s opinion of Ignatius is shared with many characters throughout the story, and it is easy to see why. Ignatius also shows just how disrespectful he can be in a conversation about his new job. When Mrs. Reilly tried to tell Ignatius to see the brighter side of the situation, he savagely replied, “Look up? Who has been sowing that unnatural garbage into your mind?” (59). This quote perfectly exemplifies how Ignatius is constantly rude to people’s faces and behind their backs. Mr. Robichaux, Mrs. Reilly’s prospective husband, explains to her that Ignatius’s appearance and behaviors are dragging her down with him by saying, “That son of yours is gonna put you in your grave” (265). These quotes and many others throughout the novel clearly show how disrespectful and how much of a slob Ignatius