- How would A Confederacy of Dunces be different if Ignatius P. Reilly were a woman? Would he be more sympathetic? Less sympathetic?
- How would the novel be different if it were set in a city other than New Orleans? How would it be different if it were set in New Orleans after Katrina?
- Why isn't the book written in first person in Ignatius's voice? How do the parts of the book that are written in Ignatius's voice (like his journal) differ from the rest of the book?
- A Confederacy of Dunces is a humor book. Do themes matter in a book like this? For that matter, are there themes, or is the whole thing just a bunch of silliness?
- Which characters in the novel speak in dialect? Is dialect just a way to make fun of these characters, or does it serve other purposes?