The Silence Of The Lambs

Chapters 1-7

Reading Check

1. Hannibal has to wear a mouthpiece because he broke a nurse’s jaw to swallow her tongue. (Chapter 2)

2. Bella, Crawford’s wife, is dying of cancer. (Chapter 5)

Short Answer

1. Hannibal tells Clarice that she will find “Valentines” in the car. (Chapter 3)

2. Clarice met Crawford when he was a guest lecturer at the University of Virginia. (Chapter 1)

Chapters 8-11

Reading Check

1. The head belongs to Raspail’s lover, “Klaus something.” (Chapter 9)

2. The Blue Canoe is an old plane that the FBI uses. (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. They suspect Buffalo Bill is white because to date all the victims are white and serial killers tend to kill within their racial demographic. (Chapter 11)

2. Buffalo Bill dumps bodies in rivers and moving bodies of water. This complicates the investigation because it is harder to determine where the body was dumped. (Chapter 11)

Chapters 12-18

Reading Check

1. Bill cut off two triangular pieces of skin from the victim’s shoulders. (Chapter 12)

2. Clarice goes to the Smithsonian to meet with bug experts. (Chapter 14)

Short Answer

1. Crawford wants to use the cocoon information to rule out false confessions. (Chapter 13)

2. Senator Martin mentions Star Wars because many paranoid schizophrenics suffer from similar delusions about aliens or other life forms trying to control their minds from space. (Chapter 17)

Chapters 19-25

Reading Check

1. Precious is Jame’s dog. (Chapter 20)

2. Sammy has hebephrenic schizophrenia, an extremely difficult condition to treat because it usually leads to personality disintegration. (Chapter 22)

Short Answer

1. Catherine realizes that Buffalo Bill is her captor after he requires her to use skin emollient. (Chapter 23)

2. An imago is an adult winged insect, but it is also a term from psychoanalysis used to describe the image of the parent buried in the unconscious. (Chapter 25)

Chapters 26-31

Reading Check

1. Hannibal tells Chilton that Buffalo Bill’s real name is Billy. (Chapter 27)

2. Clarice’s mom was a housekeeper at a motel. (Chapter 30)

Short Answer

1. Hannibal knows who Jame is because Raspail described him in therapy. (Chapter 26)

2. Crawford calls Johns Hopkins to ask about patients who were turned down for gender reassignment surgery because of personality issues or criminal history. (Chapter 28)

Chapters 32-38

Reading Check

1. Jame’s essential accessory is night-vision goggles, which he uses to watch his victims in the dark. (Chapter 33)

2. They discover Pembry’s body on top of the elevator. (Chapter 37)

Short Answer

1. Hannibal explains that Jame kills because of his need to covet. (Chapter 35)

2. A visiting researcher once loaned Hannibal a ballpoint pen. Hannibal immediately broke it and saved the tube for future use. (Chapter 36)

Chapters 39-45

Reading Check

1. The insect is a Death’s-Head Moth. (Chapter 40)

2. Catherine uses the chicken bones to try to lure Precious into the bucket. (Chapter 41)

Short Answer

1. Billy Rubin refers to bilirubin, a pigment in bile. The chemical formula for bilirubin spells “Chilton.” (Chapter 42)

2. Lloyd Wyman is a random traveler that Hannibal murdered in the airport parking lot. He then stole his car and identity. (Chapter 43)

Chapters 46-51

Reading Check

1. Jame loves watching old tapes of beauty pageants that his mom competed in. (Chapter 46)

2. Dr. Danielson from Johns Hopkins identifies Jame Gumb. (Chapter 51)

Short Answer

1. Hannibal points out that the murderer’s dump sites are “desperately random”; they are not connected and show that Jame is trying to obscure his actual location. (Chapter 47)

2. Catherine stalls her murder by luring Precious down into the tunnel with her. (Chapter 49)

Chapters 52-55

Reading Check

1. Stacy Hubka is Fredrica’s hometown friend and former coworker. (Chapter 54)

2. As a child, Jame killed his grandparents. (Chapter 53)

Short Answer

1. Clarice realizes that Buffalo Bill is cutting the skin off of his victims to sew into clothing. (Chapter 52)

2. Fredrica was rejected from the job she applied for because she was overweight and the owner did not find her attractive enough. (Chapter 54)

Chapters 56-61

Reading Check

1. Jame realizes that Clarice knows who he is when she does not look surprised to see the moths flying around. (Chapter 56)

2. Ardelia finds Clarice napping in the laundry room. (Chapter 57)

Short Answer

1. Clarice finds Jame by tracing the estates of Mrs. Lippman, Fredrica’s former employer. (Chapter 56)

2. Hannibal’s escape plan is to perform plastic surgery on his face, then join a guided tour of South America. (Chapter 61)