Point of View

The point of view in The Silence of the Lambs shifts from character to character, as needed to heighten the drama. Predominantly, the story is told from Starling's first person point of view. However, Starling cannot be present during some of the critical scenes, such as Gumb's abduction of Catherine Martin. Therefore, the author switches to both Catherine's and Gumb's points of view to communicate these vital details. The author's choice to avoid using an omniscient narrative point of view lends to the suspense. By switching the point of view back and forth between the characters, the author makes sure the reader is always more in the know than the investigators. However, it would not serve the author's purpose to give too much away too soon. Thus, he omits the omniscient narrator. By restricting the point of view to the actual knowledge of the characters in...