A Confederacy of Dunces is a tragic-comic novel having as the main character a ludicrous, but philosophical man. Ignatius Reilly is a fat, lazy young man with a university degree and who stubbornly refuses to work. He constantly criticizes the American establishment on behalf of order, geometry and culture in general. His cultural predecessors are Falstaff and Don Quixote. The novel marvellously renders the conflict between the classically educated individual and the consumerist system.