The Silence Of The Lambs

Clarice connects to Fredrica’s experience through their shared desire to hide and escape from their families’ blue collar living conditions. Clarice notices the difference between the lower levels of the Bimmels’ house and Fredrica’s room, which is full of makeshift décor and has “an echo of desperation” (315). Stacy believes Fredrica would have been embarrassed that Clarice was inside the house because she was ashamed of her situation. Clarice understands Fredrica’s desire to beautify her surroundings as Clarice herself is a “veteran yard-sale decorator” (315). More than just sympathizing with the victims, Clarice feels she could’ve easily been in their place if she was a larger size; they have a shared womanhood and upbringing that allows Clarice to see “what of her [own] experience applied” to their circumstances (316). This connection boosts Clarice’s motivation to solve the case and find justice for the women.

Clarice hypothesizes that Fredrica and Kimberly were vulnerable due to the self-esteem issues stemming from their larger size. Fredrica’s room is littered with self-improvement magazines and diet handbooks, and Kimberly’s body showed evidence of beauty modifications like hair waxing, piercings, and a manicure. Clarice believes the girls were trying to find acceptance from those around them and could be quickly manipulated by Buffalo Bill’s attention. Fredrica was doubly vulnerable because the last time she had a boyfriend, her friends “kidded [her] about going out with a queer” (330). Clarice correctly guesses that Fredrica kept her relationship with Jame Gumb a secret from her friends, which left the girl alone to navigate Gumb’s advances.

Chapter 52 shows that Clarice’s perspective as a woman is essential to the investigation because she finds connections between the victims that male police—without an understanding of the girls’ lives—overlooked. Clarice connects the plus-sized clothing brand Juno to both Fredrica and Catherine, creating an evidence-based hypothesis for where Buffalo Bill scouts out his victims. Clarice, also a sewer, recognizes that Fredrica makes her own clothes, which leads her to correctly deduce that Fredrica met Buffalo Bill through her work. However, when she looks up the significance of the outfit Fredrica wore when she died, a male officer’s observations impede her inquiry, and she exclaims, “Come on, officer, what the hell is a ‘green outfit’?” (318). Fredrica’s sewing illuminates the mysterious triangles on Kimberly’s back, which Clarice recognizes in “the blue dashes of a dressmaking pattern” (320). Rather than using Lecter’s word as proof that Buffalo Bill is “making himself a girl suit” (320), Clarice’s finds physical evidence of this fact.

The narrative moves toward the climax as the SWAT teams prepare to confront the killer. Clarice feels relieved at Gumb’s discovery, but also disheartened that Crawford tells her to not meet up with the SWAT team because she’d “never make it in time” (323). Clarice again feels sidelined at a critical moment. She becomes anxious and downcast during her interview with Stacy, having to “[shift] so she didn’t have to look at the clock” and think about the mission she isn’t on (332). Burroughs tries to place import on Clarice’s continued work in Belvedere, but she feels her interviews with the townsfolk are “extremely tedious” (332). By setting up Clarice’s present job as trivial and redundant, Harris makes the plot twist in Chapter 56 more shocking. Harris creates nerve-wracking tension by comparing the SWAT team’s preparations and resources—"the best of the best” (334)—with Clarice’s complete lack of preparation for a confrontation.