The end of A Confederacy of Dunces was one of the most satisfying and sweet endings of any book I have ever read. On one hand, it nicely brought the millions of little plots in to book together, and on the other hand, it did justice to the characters and left us with a satisfying aftertaste and just the right amount of “give me more! what happens next?” that modernists usually tend to over prescribe.

Towards the end of the novel we have the Levys, we have paradise vendors, we have the Night of Joy and its constituents and Jones, we have Irene and Santa and Mancuso (no, not the one who brings you gifts), we have Myrna, and we have Ignatius. How could Toole possibly tie them all together? Well, here‘s a short summary of how it happens: Ignatius is on his weenie route when he passes the Nigh of Joy, the owner of which happens to be practically enslaving Jones and literally hosting a pornography ring. Jones, knowing the accidental sabotaging capabilities of Ignatius, invites him in to see the bird show. The bird attacks Ignatius and Ignatius runs outside to shake the bird off of his costume earring and patrolman Mancuso is outside tailing Ignatius for his aunt (Santa) and her friend Irene (Ignatius’ mother). He stops the whole thing and somehow busts the porn ring. Later, Mr. Levy goes to Ignatius house to ask him about a letter that was written by one party and signed by Mr. Levy to a company denouncing their moral values. The letter somehow turns into a libel suit and Mr. Levy is trying to sort it out. Ignatius successfully points the finger at senile Mrs. Trixie. Irene, overcome with depression with what her son did, calls the mental ward to come pick up Ignatius and leaves the house. Ignatius picks up on this and plans an escape. Justas he was packing, long lost Myrna comes to unknowingly save Ignatius. The novel ends with them leaving to go to New York (from New Orleans). As you can see – and if you cannot see from my very brief but possibly confusing summary, I apologize – John Kennedy Toole ties in every mini plot to each other.

You know when you finish a book with a great ending but you think, “Man, I wish Ahab could have made the catch,”? Well that was not the scenario in this book. Two specific examples are the destinies of Mr. and Mrs. Levy and Patrolman Mancuso. Mrs. Levy is perhaps the most detestable character I have ever come across, in literature and in life. Everything the Mr. Levy does, she twists and threatens to tell their daughters. When he fires Ignatius for organizing the factory workers to March and attack the office manager, she tells Mr. Levy that their daughters will be very sad to hear that their father fired such a free “idealist” thinker like Ignatius. I hate every fiber in her body with every fiber in mine. And Mr. really, well he’s a nice guy. Not too stand out, but we gain some sympathy with him knowing his wife. Its nice to see the victory he experiences in the end of the novel and his revived interest in his company, with his decision to change the name to “Levy Shorts” (from Levy Pants) and show some initiative in his company; however, it is even nicer to see that, “Mrs. Levy wouldn’t really fit into the Levy Shorts plan.” Patrolman Mancuso is a character that we all feel bad for in the novel. This guy never catches a break. His boss ridicules him and makes him wear a costume and hide in a cold damp bathroom until he makes a “real” bust. Well in the end, he makes the bust of the century. He breaks the entire pornography ring in the high school system in New Orleans. This was of small importance to the novel, but it still contributed to the satisfaction in the ending.

The end of this novel was one of the best over; it encompassed everything that is necessary – in my opinion – for a good ending.

Image Study

In A Confederacy of Dunces, images did not prove an extremely important role, but they were there throughout. The main purpose of the images in the book was to show the oddities of the characters – mainly Ignatius, the massive hero of the novel. Four of the images I have selected characterize Ignatius: his Belch, his Fat, his hot dogs and his fat. (For the record, I am aware that that rhymed.) The fifth characterizes a smaller character in the novel, Burma Jones: Smoke.

Let’s start with Burma’s Smoke:

Throughout the novel, Jones never spoke. He never said or yelled or asked or screamed, he blew smoke. For example, when he was at a bar he normally attended the book says how he “aimed some smoke over the bar, ‘I mean I’m glad…’” to be more explicit, the book illustrates Jones’ speaking by evoking some image of his release of smoke. This was simply used, but frequently used, because Jones always seemed to be smoking.

Next comes ole’ Iggy. Ignatius is a huge man with horrible acid reflux and an odd sense of fashion and choice of work. Toole used images to display these grotesque features in Ignatius.

First is his green hat. Ignatius wears this odd green hunting hat, much like the one worn by Elmur Fudd. When he gets a job at the hot dog vendor and is required to wear a ridiculous pirate costume, he concedes to wear all of the costume except the pirate hat. He wears his normal hunting hat even with the pirate costume. This leads into the next image, the Paradise Hot Dog. Paradise Hot Dogs is the hot dog vendor where Ignatius is employed in the later parts of the novel. He consumes so many of these hot dogs during each of the shifts that hew works that he leaves work sometimes with less than a dollar wage. These hot dogs represent his basic world view: success is not attained through money, or happiness. It is attained through living with medieval morals. He is highly educated, yet he chooses to work selling hot dogs. Next come the image of his burps. Often, like with Jones’ smoke, the author says that Ignatius “belches” or “burps” his comments. This adds to Ignatius’ disgusting appearance, since he would never dare to upset his valve and hold in a burp when he is in the company of other people, or as he sees them, “Mongoloids.” Lastly is Ignatius’ huge being, his fatty content, his beer-less beer belly. Whenever people first lay their eyes on Ignatius they notice his size. He is massive, and through the novel he himself notes (not self-consciously I might add) “My stomach is getting out of bounds; the seems of my vendor’s smock are creaking ominously.”

All of these images are employed to the eccentricity, if I may, of the characters. They point out the flaws in ways that only a third person point of view may note, seeing as they come from the eyes of many of the other characters.

Character Study

CHARACTER STUDY:

I'm over the half-way point in the book, so all main characters have been introduced. All the more dynamic lead-roles in the novel have quotes.

Ignatius J. Reilly

The story's protagonist, he is a labyrinth of issues and flatulence. A medieval man at heart, Ignatius loathes everything modern or commercial. He is a constant observer, recording his own peculiar version of history on Big Chief tablets. Ignatius is also quite lazy, and he would prefer to spend most of his time at home in bed or in front of the television. Yet, when his mother crashes her Plymouth into a building, Ignatius is forced to enter the working world in order to help pay off the debt. He also has a special “valve” that is always acting up, preventing him from doing any work.

This is a excerpt from Ignatius' journal, keep in mind that this is the FIRST time he's written in the journal (87).

"I find, dear reader, I have grown accustomed to the hectic pace of office life, an adjustment I doubted I could make... I brought to his attention the sign (Yes, reader, it has finally been painted and posted...) As I have told you in earlier installments... I cannot abide those who would act cowardly in the face of social injustice. I believe in bold and shattering commitment to the problems of our times..."

Mrs. Reilly

Ignatius's mother. She loves her son but frequently complains that after all the money she spent on his education, he has not made anything of himself. She’s an alcoholic.

This passage is on 149 where Mrs. Reilly is telling Santa that Ignatius is going to be a hotdog vendor.

"So he says, very insolent, 'Guess again. You ain't even close.' I keep guessing for about 5 minutes until I can't think of no more jobs where you'd be wearing one of those white uniforms. Then he finally says, 'Wrong every time. I got me a job selling weenies.' I almost passed out, Santa, right on the kitchen floor. Wouldn't thata been fine, me with my head broke open on the linoleum?"

Patrolman Mancuso

An inept, yet hardworking, police officer who suspects Ignatius of being a pervert and who attempts to arrest him. His sergeant, frustrated with his incompetence, punishes him by forcing him to wear a new costume each day. If he does not apprehend a suspicious character soon, he will be thrown off the force.

Santa Battaglia

Patrolman Mancuso's aunt, she becomes Mrs. Reilly's friend and bowling partner. She decides to play matchmaker in setting up Mrs. Reilly with a man whose name is still unknown.

Honestly, the best quote to help interpret the character of Santa is found on page 89 where she is dancing in the kitchen and says very candidly to Mrs. Reilly "F*** Ignatius!"

Lana Lee

The owner of the Night of Joy, she rules the club with an iron fist. Ignatius refers to her as the "Nazi Proprietress." She is also the mastermind behind the largest high school pornography ring in the city.

Mr. Jones

An African American porter at the Night of Joy, his face is constantly hidden behind sunglasses and a cloud of smoke. Working for well below the minimum wage, he remains at the Night of Joy only because he fears he will be arrested for vagrancy if he is unemployed.

Darlene

B-Girl (someone who basically prostitutes the bar’s awful drinks) at the Night of Joy, she dreams of becoming an exotic dancer. She has a pet cockatoo that plays a prominent role in her stripper routine, since it has been trained to rip her clothes off of her.

Claude Robichaux

A grandfather of six, he is convinced that communists are taking over the country. He is the man in the very beginning of the novel that stands up for Ignatius when Patrolman Mancuso attempts to arrest him, thus getting himself arrested.

Dorian Greene

An elegant homosexual who runs a vintage clothes shop in the French Quarter. He buys Mrs. Reilly's hat early in the first chapter. Later, we learn that he throws extravagant parties.

George

A young teen with oiled hair and flamenco boots, he serves as a delivery boy for Lana Lee's “orphanage charity”.

Gus Levy

Owner of Levy Pants. He tries to dissociate himself from the business as much as possible, spending most of his time at race tracks, sporting events, and spring training camps. He and his wife have a terrible relationship, but they serve as humor.

"Last time Sandra was home, she opened her purse to get cigarettes and a pack of rubbers falls on the floor right at my feet." (pg 84)

Miss Annie

The nosy neighbor of the Reillys, she constantly complains about the noise coming from the Reilly residence.

Miss Trixie

The old, senile assistant accountant at Levy Pants, she has only two desires in life: an Easter ham (since she was never given the Thanksgiving turkey her employer promised her) and retirement. Mrs. Levy will not let her retire, however, believing that Miss Trixie needs to feel that she is wanted.

Mr. Gonzalez

The loyal and hardworking office manager at Levy Pants. Despite the fact that he is quite impressed with Ignatius as an employee, Ignatius decides to lead the factory workers in a revolt against him.

Mrs. Levy

Gus Levy's wife. She took (but failed) a correspondence course on psychology. She insists that Miss Trixie be kept employed (despite Miss Trixie's repeated requests for retirement), believing that Miss Trixie needs to feel wanted. Her favorite activities are making her husband miserable and writing to her two daughters, Susan and Sandra, to tell them of all the terrible things their father has done.

Myrna Minkoff

Ignatius refers to her as the "minx." She is a Jewish from New York, whom Ignatius met in college. She believes that sex is the answer to many of life's problems, and she often accuses Ignatius of having homosexual tendencies.

Sergeant

Patrolman Mancuso's boss who, out of frustration with Mancuso's ineptitude, forces him to wear ridiculous costumes and to spend long days sitting in the bus station bathroom. He threatens to kick Mancuso off the force if he does not shape up.

Rhetoric Study

Rhetoric Study in the evolution of Ignatius, excerpt from page 103.

This is Ignatius' second journal entry about his new "career" and his life as a self-proclaimed martyr for the factory workers of the Levy Pants plant. Toole uses the journal as a tool (no pun intended) that allows the reader to be in Ignatius' head and speak through Ignatius in first person. But the thing about the journals is that Ignatius is still trying to 'impress' the world, for he believes that these journals may be published one day. By making Ignatius portray himself as some sort of 9 to 5 hero, Toole creates an ironic contrast between reality and Ignatius' world view. Throughout the passage I will be commenting on what Toole is doing, and why he is doing it.

*my comments are in bold

"Another working day is ended, gentle reader. *Although he's an unpublished author with unfinished editorials and manuscripts strewn all about his messy bedroom floor, Ignatius talks to his imaginary readers in a superior way. This is Toole showing Ignatius' inflated ego* As I told you before, I have succeeded in laying a patina, as it were, over the turbulence and mania of our office. *"Turbulence and mania are literally the last to words anyone would use to describe the Levy Pants office. There are 3 workers in a silent room, one worker being Ignatius, one is a woman on the brink of death and she's usually asleep, and then there is Mr. Gonzales who actually does all his work and never speaks unless spoken to. It is the calmest, least active "office" in existence; Toole shows the reader how skewed Ignatius' views are when Ignatius sees the polar opposite of what the reader sees*All non-essential activities*technically everything they do is unessential according to their boss Mr. Levy, ironic*in the office are slowly being curtailed. At the moment I am busily decorating our throbbing *again with a ridiculous view of reality considering the office is anything BUT 'throbbing'* hive of white-collared bees (three). The analogy of the three bees brings to mind the three b’s which describe most aptly my actions as an office worker: banish, benefit, beautify. There are also three b’s which most aptly describe the actions of our buffoon of an office manager: bait, beg, blight, blunder, bore, boss, bother, bungle, burden, buzz. (In this case, I am afraid that the list gets somewhat out of hand.) I have come to the conclusion that our office manager serves no purpose other than one of obfuscations and hindrance *HA! Toole shows how Ignatius sees everyone as a problem to society, even though Ignatius himself is extremely inefficient and a huge hindrance (literally and figuratively)*. Were it not for him, the other clerical worker (La Dama del Comercio) *the queen of eating* and I would be quite peaceful and content, attending to our duties in an atmosphere of mutual consideration. I am certain that his dictatorial methods are, in part, responsible for Miss T.’s desire to retire… *Miss. T is so old, Mr. Gonzales "dictorial methods" are the LAST thing that would be effecting Mrs. Trixie, especially since Mr.Gonzales is the most soft spoken man and never forces her to do anything*”

Toole uses rhetoric to create a disconnect between Ignatius and reality, he does so using irony and humor. The impact of the section leaves the reader thinking, or more so knowing, that Ignatius is indeed as outlandish and egotistical as previously assumed.

Brainless Work Ethic (theme study)

John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces shows through its dysfunctional society two major American Themes: everyone is ignorant and brainless and the American work ethic is at a minimum. The main way that he shows that everyone is dim is through his main character, Ignatius. His actions and thoughts exemplify those of your typical ignorant American. Toole’s clever invention of Levy Pants, and more specifically its factory, shows the utter lack of concern that the American worker has with his job.

The first theme shown in the novel is simply that everyone on the face of the earth is dumb. No matter what. Ignatius Reilly is not uneducated; as a matter of fact he has a master’s degree. As opposed to having an obsessions to pop culture and a hate of historical context and knowledge, as all extraordinarily immature men who live with their mothers do, he obsesses over his hatred of pop culture (he specifically goes to movies to explore his distain of pop culture) and prefers the philosophy of the middle ages and a scholastic knowledge of everything from that time. Nevertheless, Ignatius is by far the most ignorant oaf that this novel has to offer. He feels himself superior to all saying that he “I only socialize with my equals, and since I have no equals I do not socialize.”

He is completely unaware of what is going on around him; he blurts out every comment that comes to his head without a filter. But he is not the only one: when Mrs. Reilly had a few of her new friends over, one of them – Santa is her name – started doing some outrageously kinky dance to some outrageously loud music, all outrageous enough to incite anger in a neighbor, Mrs. Reilly said, “Lord! What if Ignatius comes home and sees this,” to which she replied (to the mother of Ignatius, naturally), “fuck Ignatius.” This blatantly shows how people have no resolve for how others feel about what they say. The novel is plagued with minor characters who shoe how idiotic people really are. The police chief makes an impotent officer dress up in costumes every day until he starts acting like a real officer and brings people in as if the costumes could really help with the issue. Jones (a minor character who works in a bar for significantly less that minimum wage because the bar owner tricked him to thinking that he can be arrested for vagrancy if he does not have a job) gets himself into the parenthetically mentioned situation just because of his sheer ignorance. The moral of the story is this: everybody is dumb.

(On a completely unrelated note, Mrs. Reilly gasped in shock to Santa’s comment about Ignatius, but had a slight look of pleasure. If the reader has looked at the Mother and Son entry, this will bring him or her some additional information)

The second feature of American society that this novel exploits – or “theme” as you may call it – is the surprisingly low competency and ethic of its workers. If American labor was in the state that is presented in this novel, we may very well still all be farmers in Babylonia. The greatest example of this “ethic” in the novel is in Ignatius’s “journal” entry where he describes his visit to the factory of Levy Pants. He writes, “I saw only one pair of trousers actually completed in the time that I spent there, although the factory workers were shambling about clutching all sorts of scraps of cloth. One woman, I noticed, was pressing some baby’s clothing and another seemed to be making remarkable progress with the sections of fuscia satin which she was joining together with one of the large sewing machines.” She was making a gown. These workers represent the American working class’s low level of work ethic.

If we look up the chain, to the foreman of the factory, perhaps, we see that he is “normally only a few steps to the bottle.” During Ignatius’s visit, he was not even there; he was “probably quaffing a liquid lunch in one of the many taverns in the vicinity of our organization.” If we find it in ourselves to take a trip even farther up the symbolic chain, we can see the owner of Levy Pants, Mr. Levy, who admittedly does not want anything to do with the business and hardly ever goes by to see how things are running. He does not micro- or macro-manage. Through the Levy Pants organization Toole expresses the idea that the American worker does not care about his or her work.

Toole shapes every word and sentence and situation in the novel to show these two themes. The idea of dimwitted America is shown through Ignatius while the theme pertaining to the low work ethic is shown through Levy Pants… and of course, also Ignatius. (At Levy Pants he literally throws away his work to do what in his mind are more important projects.)

Levy Pants

The office of Levy Pants is “perhaps the most disreputable office that he ever entered … The atmosphere of the place reminded Ignatius of his own room, and his valve agreed by opening joyfully.” This is the location of Ignatius’ soon to be workplace; it is a place so awful that it is suitable for Ignatius Reilly himself. The excuse for a manager in the office is Mr. Gonzalez. He shows up at work an hour early every morning to tidy up a bit for the other workers that will more than likely not show up. As a matter of fact, his main concern at the moment is getting employees, since none of them last for much over an hour or two, and “promptness was sufficient excuse for promotion.”The only employee that has been around has been around for about half of a century. Miss Trixie is an old woman who works in the office and is not being retired because of Mrs. Levy (Wife of the owner) “thinks its better for Miss Trixie to keep active.” She is described to never be, “perfectly vertical; she and the floor always met at an angle less than ninety degrees.” All in all, she is a very old woman who offers very little help to Mr. Gonzalez, whom she calls Gomez out of forgetfulness (she calls Ignatius Gloria, the name of an ex-employee at Levy Pants), but she is help nonetheless.



The last component of Levy Pants (excluding Ignatius) is Mr. and Mrs. Levy. Mr. Levy’s father started levy pants and it seems as if Mr. Levy is going to close it. In the mist of one of their bitter battles, Mrs. Levy said, “you’ve thrown your fathers business down the drain. That’s the tragedy of your life.” Mr. Levy answered, “Who wants that old factory?” He has no will to keep it running. The book discusses the rarity of his visits to the company and his lack of interest in anything that is related to the company. This is a major roll of Ignatius who has dedicated himself to revitalizing Mr. Levy’s interest in the company.



Then the company was hit with a level 5 hurricane: Ignatius Reilly. Ignatius takes the job as a secretary, a basic filer, but that is not all he does. As a matter of face, he does not do that very job he was hired for. Instead, he throws out the files that he has been told to file – on the count of, of course, his valve upsetting him deeply – and takes upon himself other office jobs such as decorating. One of his main projects for which “filing, Alphabetizing – all of that must wait.” The project” Painting a cross, perhaps to make the office more “spiritual”. Another of his practices is showing up to work an hour late every day. His philosophy is simply why waste and hour in the morning doing groggy work when you can come in an hour later and start off doing more that sufficient work. He also neglected to do his traditional work when he needed to go and visit the factory. His visit he chronicled in a ten page diary entry where he revealed the extremely low conditions and pay of the factory workers. He also noted how much he enjoyed the workers individuality, ignorantly discussing how the workers were working on personal sewing projects and chatting as opposed to doing their required job. At one point, he turned off their music which he found disgusting and found that he had a minor uprising on his hands. He quickly turned it back on and did a dance at which the workers laughed; he, of course, thought they were laughing with him.



The great comedy and irony of Ignatius’ employment is the ignorance with which Mr. Gonzalez employs him. He wonders, “What fairy godmother had dropped Mr. Ignatius J. Reilly on the worn and rotting steps of Levy Pants?” This erroneous thought obviously comes from the disillusionment that he actually has a worker younger than Jesus’ aunt that comes to work every day. As you can see, he is greatly mistaken. Ignatius only does work when his valve permits him to, which, I can tell you, is not very often. Mr. Gonzalez thinks that Ignatius is, “four workers in one,” and notices that because of his, “competent hands, the filing seemed to disappear.”



The dysfunction of the company comes directly from those who run it and work for it. The workers are all incompetent and have no apparent purpose other than to run the company into the ground as fast as possible. From the top, Mr. Levy could not care less about the way the company goes, to the bottom, where the workers are more interested in making their daughters dresses that making levy pants, Levy Pants is a company that is infected with the parasite of failure.

Mother and Son

I find the relationship between Ignatius Reilly and his mother Irene Reilly in the beginning to middle of the book to be so fascinating that an entire blog entry needed to be written about it. The reason that it is in just these parts is because the relationship is a dynamic one. Perhaps this response will need a sequel.


First, a brief overview of the two is necessary. Ignatius is an overweight, narcissistic slob who admittedly is “forced to function in a century which [he] loathe[s],” because he claims to be a “medievalist.” Because of this medievalist mindset he believes in Boethius’ wheel of fortune and brings it up in the narration throughout the novel. He believes that the goddess Fortuna has “spun him backward.” His valve has always got him down - his pyloric valve, that is. Whenever he experiences anything – so, always – he has a problem with his valve. For example he can only go to visit his company’s factory when his “valve is operating.” It is important to note that his valve quite rarely operates, and quite conveniently, too. “My valve has been misbehaving and has prevented me from bending over to reach the lower drawers,” he explained to his boss as an excuse for not doing his fileing. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly to the relationship in question, Ignatius lives at home with his mother. He is in his mid thirties. Enough said?

Next comes his mother, who, surprisingly as it may come, is just as functional as him. Irene has been a widow for over twenty years and – as suspected of the mother of the afore mentioned creature – likes her a drink or three, more specifically, muscatel.

Each and every meeting between the two is completely odd to say the least. In the beginning of the novel they go to a bar (which becomes a major setting of the novel) after coincidentally running from being arrested. Right when they enter the bar Mrs. Reilly – out of complete compassion for the bar owner and knowledge that they can’t sit in the bar for free, of course – orders two beers for the two of them. As they start to mingle it comes about that Irene mentioned to an apparent patron that Ignatius “graduated smart” to which Ignatius mockingly retorted the phrase and asked her to define her terms. When the person with whom they were speaking told him “don’t talk to your mama like that,” Irene interjected “oh, he treats me bad sometimes,” and naturally, begins to sob. “You just don’t know. When I think of all that I done for that boy…” she told her new friend. And with the full force of empathy Ignatius tells her to “stop that right now. I’m afraid that you’ve had too much beer.” Mrs. Reilly cries for about a half of a page longer when the owner of the bar comes in and wonders aloud why were these two idiots in her bar and why was business so bad. Immediately Ignatius asks her to excuse him, “my mother is present,” he defended. How could this woman be so blatantly rude to his own mother? They left the bar, but not before Mrs. Reilly could sell the hat her son made her on his first communion for fifteen dollars.

The characters of both Ignatius and his mother are seen through how they speak to each other. Irene speaks to Ignatius like he is a four year old who acts young for his age and he speaks to her like she is a cockroach who just landed on a cake he made for the mother he loves. She takes his abuse like its nothing. In this scene where he comes home after not getting a job he applied for. He tells his mother that they are miserably, and after they go back and forth in the childish “yes you are, “ “no im not,” for of bickering, he tells his mother, “If I had demolished private property while I was intoxicated,” (this had gone on right after my recap ended in the previously mentioned scene, “and had thereby thrown my child to the wolves, I would be beating my breast and wailing. I would kneel in penance until my knees bled,” then asking, “By the way, what penance has the priest given you for you sin?” about the confession that Ignatius had forced his mother to take. She took his tone and answered his question with, “Three Hail Maries and a Our Father.” “Is that all?” Ignatius rhetorically asked. This scene shows his perfect disrespect for his mother and his mother’s willingness to take it. After all, he is her sweet boy.

However, Mrs. Reilly does not take this without notice. Finally when Ignatius is out of the house at work, she is relaxed. The house no longer stunk of Ignatius (her beloved son). She even saw that the roaches seemed to be leaving. At this she poured herself a nice glass of muscatel and wondered if her sons work place was “beginning to reek a little of used pekoe.” She then remembered the “horrible night” when she and her husband went to see a movie and then, “In the heat and confusion that followed their return home, nice Mr. Reilly tried one of his indirect approaches, and Ignatius was conceived.

This comical relationship between mother and son shows the stupidity of all of the characters in the novel. With respect to their relationship, I cannot wait to see how it manifests itself and what more damage it will occur. In the more recent parts, she seems to be taking up a fondness in a man whom Ignatius naturally hates. In the words of our own Ignatius, “We must stay to watch the corruption. It’s already beginning to set in.”