Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Silence of the Lambs, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sexism and Law Enforcement
The Nature of Evil
Class and Shame
Manipulation
Summary
Analysis
In East Memphis, Tennessee, a young, full-figured woman named Catherine Baker Martin smokes marijuana while watching television with her boyfriend. She gets up to go make a call, which requires her to walk outside to a nearby building in her apartment complex. In the complex, Catherine notices a truck she does not recognize, which momentarily freaks her out. However, she quickly calms herself and moves to the nearby building to make her telephone call.
Catherine Baker Martin’s physique immediately raises red flags because she matches the profile of one of Buffalo Bill’s victims. This is the first time in the novel that Harris moves away from Starling’s perspective, which is something that will become more common in the rest of the novel.
Themes
Just before entering the building, Catherine turns around and sees a man in an arm cast (Buffalo Bill) attempting to load a chair into the truck. Taking pity on the injured man, Catherine turns around and offers to help him. The man accepts her help and she lifts the chair into the truck. The man then asks Catherine to look in the truck for some rope to tie the chair down. As she does so, the man comes up behind her and hits her in the back of the head with his cast, knocking her unconscious.
Of course, Catherine does not know who she is helping. Buffalo Bill takes advantage of her generosity so that he can assault her. Buffalo Bill's method to lure Catherine in is one Harris borrowed from Ted Bundy. Bundy also would wear a fake cast so that his victims would let their guard down before he kidnapped and killed them.
Themes
Once Buffalo Bill knows Catherine is out cold, he strips her body and examines it. He is satisfied with what he sees because she is about his size. Buffalo Bill gets in his truck and drives away. In the nearby building, a phone is ringing. On the other side is Catherine’s mother: Senator Ruth Martin.
Evidently, Buffalo Bill is only murdering women who are the same size as him. This is a fact that the reader now knows, but the FBI has yet to figure out. Although the FBI is already under a lot of scrutiny, that pressure is about to mount even more because Catherine is the daughter of an important political figure.
Themes
