The Silence of the Lambs
The title of the film situates important thematic imagery. Clarice’s attempts to put a silence to the crying of the lambs is a metaphor for her joining the FBI to save the innocent. What she was unable to do literally with the lambs, she commits her life to doing metaphorically. (And, of course, also literally.) So, basically, the entire story is Clarice’s attempts to save the lambs (Buffalo Bill’s victims) from slaughter.
Animal Imagery
Animal imagery pervades the novel. Clarice’s last name, Starling, is also a species of bird; tellingly, starlings are one of the most common birds with very little of the exotic aspects usually associated with bird symbolism. When warning Clarice not to allow Lecter to get her into head, he compares the serial killer’s curiosity to that which “makes a snake look in a bird’s next.” Starling’s ability to concentrate is described intent as a lizard and, of course, Buffalo Bill’s calling card is the cocoon of a moth. Not to mention, naturally, the lambs.
Waste
One of the experts she consults tells Starling that one of the original definitions of the word moth was “anything that wastes any other thing.” The imagery of waste from the point forward recurs in myriad ways through the rest of the story. Clarice wonders what happens if because of Chilton’s interference, Buffalo Bill “wastes Catherine.” Senator Martin warns Crawford that “infighting wastes time.” Crawford tells Starling and later Starling recalls his exact words that “waste and stupidity get you the worst.” The imagery builds a pattern which suggests that in the world of law enforcement, there is no greater sin than waste.
Education
Education turns out to be a significant use of imagery in the novel. The very first sentence describes the location of the “Academy” at the FBI’s Quantico location. Not much longer, Jack Crawford is described in a quite unusual way: as looking like someone who paid their way through college playing baseball. In front of Chilton, Lecter says to Starling, "Did you know Dr. Chilton has no medical degree?” which connects mightily to the fact that Chilton goes out of his way to try to humiliate and belittle Starling. Perhaps most importantly, however, is the juxtaposition of highly educated and cultured serial killer Hannibal the Cannibal with the decidedly more low-IQ figure of serial killer Buffalo Bill. Bill dies while Lecter gets away; Chilton will become a meal for Lecter while Clarice can finally sleep at night without the screaming of the lambs. The implication of the imagery is as clear as Clarice’s musing: “school was the thing in America, don't you know, and the Starlings caught on to that.”
