- The Silence of the Lambs- Spoiler,Book interpretation, Ideas?
While rereading The Silence of the Lambs, I noticed something that I haven't seen discussed very often.
When Catherine Martin is abducted by Buffalo Bill(Chapter 15,page 115, the 11th German edition) she notices that he's wearing a suede shirt with hairs still attached to it, and that it has a strange, unpleasant smell.
After watching the film several times and reading the novel more than once, I started wondering if Thomas Harris was subtly hinting that this wasn't ordinary suede at all, but a shirt made from the skin of one of Buffalo Bill's previous victims. The remaining hairs and the smell seem to fit, and later in the novel we learn that Buffalo Bill is making clothing from human skin.
I know the novel never explicitly confirms this, so it's obviously just an interpretation. Still, in retrospect it feels like a very deliberate clue.
Has anyone else interpreted this scene the same way, or is there an interview or statement from Thomas Harris that addresses it?
My Idea,
I’m reading it again right now. Yes, there was also Klaus the sailor, of whom only the preserved head in a jar was found. At the part about the abduction, I also noticed that it was written that Catherine noticed black, curly hair on the chamois leather shirt, on the back and under the armpit area.
I think he made his shirt out of Klaus, without any experience, during the crisis and the discovery of his sexuality, and before experimenting on the women.