Even at the level of motifs, Clarice is associated with open spaces from the initial jogging sequejnce onward, and a bullet she fires in the cellar at the end breaks one of Gumb's blacked-out windows, letting sunlight into the room.
Lecter's escape and hismove into the role of sole antagonist do contreast with the single most important structturing devidce in the narrative: Clarice's maturation inot Special Agent Clarince M. Startling. We surely could not believe that tthe Clarice of the opeing scenes could go up against Lecter and have any hope of winning. Yet by the end, we can imagine a sequel in which she would track Lecter down. And she might well win - or at least foil his plans, leaving him free for another sequel.
After all, Clarice almost does defeat Lecter in Silence, and quite early on at that. Just before the centreal turning points, she presents him with the supposed FBI offer of a transfer to a prison in New York State, with yearly vacations on Plum Island - which he quickly notices, houses an animal-disease research site. It is clear in this scene that Lecter believes her- or at least, as Hopkins makes clear, that Lecter desperately wants to believe her- and he falls for the scheme. He reveals more information to her here than in any other scene: that Bill preys upon large women, that the moths signify transformation, and that Bill thinks he is a transsexual but really is not. Thse are not necessaryly essential clues, but in general Lecter is quite communicativ ehere, following through on his bargain.
The clue about transexuality leads to the seach at the main centers for sex-change operations: Johns Hopkins, the University of Minnesota, and Columbia Medical Center.That search ultimately provides a red herring, in that hospital records fivert Crawford to the out of date address in Calument City.
Still , it also yields a name, Jame Gumb, the killer's real name.All of B uffalo Bill's mentioned aliases use the initials J.
