The Silence of the Lambs Chapter Summary & Analysis | Chapters 1 - 5

Chapters 1 - 5 Summary

Chapter 1: FBI trainee Clarice Starling is called away from firing range practice to see Jack Crawford in his office. Crawford is Section Chief of the Behavioral Sciences department, headquartered in a subterranean level of the FBI Academy building in Quantico, West Virginia. The puffy shadows under Crawford's eyes testify to the pressure he is under to catch the serial killer, Buffalo Bill. Crawford had been instrumental in recruiting Starling to the FBI Academy, but he has ignored her ever since, and "she had written Crawford off as a two-faced recruiting sergeant son of a bitch." (pg. 2) Grudgingly, she finds herself liking him again, as he offers her an opportunity to participate in a psychological evaluation of an infamous serial killer named Hannibal Lecter, or "Hannibal the Cannibal," as he's known in the press. Crawford warns her that Dr. Lecter, a psychiatrist, likes to play mind games with law...
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