Character Description
The character of Section Chief Jack Crawford is introduced in the first few paragraphs of the novel and the author is rather unusually specific in his use of a simile. An unwritten rule of writing is that the longer the simile is carried out, the funnier it becomes. The description of Crawford toys with being humorous, but never quite fully commits:
“Normally, Crawford looked like a fit, middle-aged engineer who might have paid his way through college playing baseball--- a crafty catcher, tough when he blocked the plate.”
"BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN!"
The headline of the tabloid newspaper the National Tattler brands Clarice Starling with this metaphorical nickname following reports that she “had found the remains in the garage through an `eerie bonding with a man authorities have branded... a monster!’”
Jame Gumb or Buffalo Bill?
According to Benjamin Raspail in the notes from his therapy session with Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the man who would eventually become the notorious serial killer dubbed Buffalo Bill, poor Jame Gumb was, in reality,
“not anything, really, just a sort of total lack that he wants to fill”
Hannibal the…Cannibalized?
Hannibal Lecter’s name and peculiarly idiosyncratic diet made his media nickname a natural that could hardly be avoided. A nickname no doubt that someone like Lecter found enjoyable. Likely for more tasteful to him than the metaphorical way in which his relationship to that media is described:
“Dr. Hannibal Lecter was catnip to the media”
Clarice Starling, Ambitious Rube
At their first meeting Lecter sizes Starling up before brutally—but deceptively—cutting her down:
“Your eyes are like cheap birthstones--- all surface shine when you stalk some little answer.”
