59 pages • 1 hour read
Thomas HarrisRed Dragon
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1981A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Empathy and Alienation
Bloom describes Graham’s greatest talent as “pure empathy and projection” (189). This talent for assuming the perspective of almost any other person is what allows Graham to create such detailed profiles of people who seem to operate beyond the pale of human morality and action. Crawford knows that Graham “doesn’t think like other people” (10), which is exactly what makes him so valuable and—in an ironic manner—makes Graham feel so alienated from society. Graham is disgusted by his talent. By the end of the novel, he can know certain details about Dolarhyde’s life because he empathizes with the “monster” (394). Being able to empathize with a monster, to be able to walk through a murder scene and describe how and why a murderer acted in any given fashion, appalls Graham. He worries that his ability to empathize with a serial killer somehow makes him sympathetic toward them. To others, his abilities seem almost supernatural. Both Graham’s shame and others’ astonishment exacerbate his sense of alienation, pushing him away from the social mainstream and toward the fringes of society where the monsters are to be found. Graham’s talent is also a curse; whereas empathy is typically regarded as a positive talent, Graham’s empathy is so extreme that he is disgusted by his ability to comprehend even the most twisted minds. This disgust pushes him deeper into a feeling of alienation, creating a self-sustaining loop where his alienation feeds his ability to empathize with other alienated people, which serves to deepen his alienation.
Lecter understands the negative connotations of Graham’s talent. At every opportunity, he seeks to remind Graham of how similar they are. During their first meeting, Lecter repeatedly asks Graham whether he knows how exactly he solved the Lecter case. At the end of their first meeting, Lecter explicitly states that Graham caught him because they are “just alike” (83). Graham’s decision to ignore the question hints that he understands and fears the answer. The use of italics shows how Lecter is using Graham’s self-awareness and his empathy to torture Graham, to make him think that he belongs on the other side of the cell bars. Even in his final, taunting letter to Graham, Lecter does not say much other than empathize their similarities. He is intellectually dishonest, comparing Graham’s convalescence to his own incarceration. The reality of the letter is, however, irrelevant. Lecter knows that Graham fears the darkness in his mind. He knows that Graham is worried how much his talent for empathy has affected him. Lecter twists the knife at every turn, driving Graham further into an alienated state as a form of revenge for putting him behind bars.
While Graham never reads Lecter’s final letter, he is caught in a tortured position regardless. Due to the circumstances of the Dragon case, Graham’s marriage to Molly has fallen apart. Both Graham and Molly know that their marriage has reached the end of its natural course, but they struggle to vocalize this thought. Graham’s capacity for empathy is a demonstrable burden. Not only is his talent the reason why he was recruited for this case, but the talent also allows him to completely understand Molly’s point of view. The danger and the fear brought upon her is understandable. Graham empathizes with her so strongly that he knows that there is nothing he can do, nor can he blame her. Instead, he accepts that he must be alone. Graham’s capacity for empathy leads him to quietly accept the dissolution of his marriage and the alienation it entails.
Cycles of Violence
An important part of Red Dragon is tracing the origins of violence. While constructing his profile of the killer, Graham denounces the idea of “random” (97) violence. Dolarhyde does not select his victims through pure opportunism, but because they represent something to him. They are part of cycles of generational violence, an ongoing recurrence that visits trauma and pain from the past on those in the present. Graham does not know Dolarhyde’s life story, but he does not need to know. He understands that childhood abuse and trauma can manifest in a killer’s motivations, which allows him to stitch together an understanding of who his suspect might be. Graham is correct. Dolarhyde is the victim of many years of abuse. After enduring physical and emotional abuse from his grandmother, mother, stepsiblings, and peers, he turned this around. He began by killing chickens and, afterward, he revels in the feeling of a “sweet and easy peace” (265) that he has never felt before. Devoid of love, Dolarhyde experiences only pain. When he learns how to inflict a similar pain on others, he feels relieved. Since pain is all he knows, he feels as though he is operating along the correct lines of social interaction. The cycle of pain, abuse, and violence which has engulfed his life from a young age becomes all-consuming. When Dolarhyde begins murdering people, his specific routine—from the need for an audience, to the targeting of families, to the use of his grandmother’s teeth—is all in accordance with the violence he experienced as a child which is now being inflicted on others.
In a broader sense, the narrative is cyclical. Graham achieves a moderate level of fame for catching Hannibal Lecter. When he struggles to piece together a profile of the latest serial killer, however, he feels the need to visit Lecter. Graham tried to escape the violence of his past by moving to Florida after he shot Garrett Jacob Hobbs. When Crawford came to recruit him, however, he feels the inexorable pull of necessity. Trying to justify his decision or his compulsion to Molly, he asks her “what the hell can I do?” (9). Graham is drawn into the cycle of violence, unable to escape. He is unable to escape from Lecter, unable to escape from his past, and unable to escape from the need to return to the case. Whether through guilt, fear, or a sense of duty, Graham is drawn back into a cycle of violence. As inevitable as Dolarhyde’s abuse turning into violence against others, Graham’s inability to stay away presents him as a similar figure. Graham, Dolarhyde, and Lecter may not be the same, but they are trapped by similar cycles of violence.
The end of Graham’s marriage illustrates the nuanced ways in which the cycle perpetuates itself. Graham is physically wounded in his confrontation with Dolarhyde. More damaging, however, is the collapse of his marriage. Even before Dolarhyde attacks him, Graham knows that he and Molly are destined to break up. He has simply brought too much violence and trauma into their relationship through his proximity to monstrous people. The work and the people with whom he engages are inescapable, inflicting an emotional trauma on their marriage from which they will never recover. Molly can never feel safe, and she can never feel assured that Graham will be safe. Likewise, Graham cannot be satisfied knowing that his talents might protect other people. When he assures Reba in the hospital bed that there is “nothing wrong” (419) with her, the assurances are as much for himself as it is for her. He knows that she is wrapped up in the cycles of violence, just like him. He knows the damage that has been done but he fears the damage that may be done in the future through his inaction.
The Greater Good
Many of the characters in Red Dragon operate at the behest of some higher calling. They justify their actions by claiming that they are working for the greater good of society. Other than Lecter whose crimes are simple pleasures, even criminals such as Dolarhyde present their crimes as part of a commendable narrative arc. Dolarhyde is turning himself in the Dragon not just for himself, but so that society can witness “the majesty of Dolarhyde’s Becoming” (117). Viewership here would mimic the love and acceptance he got from Reba with the assumption that the audience would enjoy the Dragon’s spectacle, just as the tabloids did by providing readership of the Dragon’s actions. Crawford understands this need to justify actions through social benefit. When he recruits Graham to the case, he brings “snapshots” (4) of the families when they were alive and well. He presents Graham with a photographic reminder of what they are working for and who they are trying to protect. Rather than bait Graham with “intellectual vanity” (81), as Graham tries to do to Lecter, Crawford understands that Graham will react to a social cause. He convinces Graham to leave everything behind to work for the greater good, to protect lives and to save families, even if he has built a new life for himself outside of the world of murders and police pursuits. Crawford is willing to sacrifice other men’s wellbeing for the chance to serve the greater good, and Graham is willing to sacrifice himself and his family for the same.
Once recruited, Graham wrestles with his own sense of social obligation. He has a longstanding dislike of the tabloid reporter Freddy Lounds. When Lounds tricks the FBI into talking to him, pretending to be the killer, Crawford convinces Graham to use Lounds to lure the killer out. They are putting Lounds’s life at risk, but they are doing so for the greater good which comes with catching the killer. Graham quickly accepts this danger. He compounds the danger during the photoshoot for Lounds’s interview. In one picture, he places “a comradely hand on Lounds’s shoulder” (119). This is a self-consciously spiteful action, so much so that it surprises Bloom. Graham is actively associating himself with Lounds in the killer’s eyes; he understands how the picture will appear in print and the added danger that this brings to the reporter. Graham goes beyond the boundaries of the greater good, turning a simple plan into a spite-fueled revenge which he later comes to regret. As well as Bloom, Lounds is aware of what Graham has done. He accuses Graham of setting him up and then dies a short time later. Graham never deviates from Crawford’s plan again. For a short time, he goes beyond Crawford’s pragmatic approach and indulges his emotional responses. Pragmatism triumphs over emotions, he is shown, unless he wishes to feel immediate guilt.
By the end of the novel, Crawford believes himself to be justified. When Graham correctly identifies the Gateway film laboratory as the link between the murdered families, Crawford extends his hand to Graham to shake. The gesture is “curiously formal” (387), emphasizing their professional relationship over their enduring friendship. The professional nature of the handshake is a subtle expression of Crawford’s need to justify his actions. He ratifies his professional decision to endanger his friend, congratulating him in a formal rather than a friendly manner because he feels guilt for putting his fragile friend in harm’s way. Crawford’s pragmatism pays off: he catches Francis Dolarhyde. For Graham, however, the cost is drastic. He is physically injured, he is emotionally scarred, he is forced to confront a darkness within himself that he has tried to forget, and he loses his marriage to Molly. Graham understood Crawford’s reasoning and his professional need to operate as he did. Graham knows about the greater good that his talents can provide for society. On a personal level, however, he pays a cost which no one else is made to pay. Graham suffers so that others can live. Far more than Crawford, he is the character who endures great pain on the behalf of others. Only Graham truly understands the consequences of working toward the greater good of society.
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