Symbols and Tropes
The Death's Head Moth
What's Buggin' Ya? One of the biggest clues in deciphering the identity of Buffalo Bill is also the smallest one: a bug cocoon found inside a corpse's throat and extracted in an extremely disturbin...
The Mask
Somebody Stop HimThere should be a sign on Hannibal Lecter's cage: do not feed the cannibal. When Lecter is taken from his cage, he's forced into a mask to keep him from getting too…snappy. The m...
The Drawings
Sketchy Motivations The view from Lecter's cell isn't good. Bricks. Other serial killers. Mold. To spruce things up, he hangs drawings, like one of the Duomo in Florence, Italy. "Memory, Agent Star...
Watching
Everyone's watching Clarice closely—Lecter, Miggs, Chilton, the bug guys, cops, woman-skinners. She's the object of curiosity and desire, often unwanted, from all kinds of men; even some of her m...