Red Dragon

After leaving the FBI, Graham moves to Florida. He lives beside the beach with his wife Molly and her son, Willy. He owns very little, but he does own fishing equipment. In the novel, fishing functions as a symbolic act on two levels. The first of these is the process of catching a person. Fishing functions as a metaphor, a set of terms that can be used to describe the pursuit of other people, both criminals and law enforcement officers. When Crawford visits Graham to recruit him, for example, he lures Graham back with photographs and lurid stories. He is slow and patient, knowing how to cast his line to attract this particular fish. Later, he is described as a “fisher of men” (132). As well as Crawford, Graham thinks about catching people in terms of fishing. He suggests that Lecter would be the “best bait” (143) to lure Dolarhyde, while later also offering up himself and Freddy Lounds. Even more explicitly than Crawford, Graham thinks about catching criminals as though they are fish, and he is a fisherman. He follows the same, careful process that he would do if he were casting his line in the sea.

At the end of the novel, Graham returns home to Florida. By this time, so much has changed that his relationship with Molly and Willy is beyond repair. He knows that he cannot return to the life he once had, and this is made especially clear when the family go fishing together. They fish for three hours “in silence” (430). Fishing can typically be a silent pursuit, an activity enjoyed by a single person, but the silence of this family outing is pronounced. The silence is symbolic, juxtaposed against past instances of fishing in which the family enjoyed themselves. Through the act of fishing, Graham comes to understand how out of place Willy seems. He notices that Willy is “fishing too fast” (430), unsatisfied with the slow and careful process that Graham feels innately. Willy here is deliberately separating himself from Graham. To further emphasize Willy’s disconnect from Graham, he is using the “Rapala” (431) fishhook that once belonged to his now-dead father as well as a fishing rod that was a gift from his paternal grandfather. Willy may be fishing alongside Graham, but he is symbolically fishing with his dead father. Graham does not correct Willy. He does not want to intrude on the youngster who seems to be going through a grieving process. None of the fishing advice that Graham could ever provide—no matter how useful or insightful—will be able to compete with the symbolic act of Willy using his dead father’s fishing equipment. Through symbolism, Graham is reminded of the unfixable rupture between himself and his family.

While the family is fishing on the beach, Graham returns to the house to answer a telephone call from Crawford. He is attacked by Dolarhyde, who nearly shoots him and then drives a knife into his cheek. Graham is saved by Molly, who uses Willy’s fishing rod to attack Dolarhyde. She drives the “big Rapala’s hooks” (432) into Dolarhyde’s face, reopening the facial wounds which caused him so much agony in his youth. The wounds make him unable to speak, reducing him to the inarticulate status which was so traumatizing, and which placed him on the path to becoming a murderer. Furthermore, Molly’s choice of weapon is symbolic. Her marriage is over, and she beats the man who broke her marriage with the symbol of its demise. She vents her frustration on a metaphorical level by hurting Dolarhyde as she has been hurt. Like the act, Molly’s decision to leave Graham is an act of self-defense which nonetheless inflicts pain. She cannot be with Graham because she cannot endure the potential trauma and violence which he brings into their lives. She beats Dolarhyde, then shoots him to death. Molly finishes the narrative arc, just as she finishes the marriage. The fishing rod as a weapon is a subtle indication of the unhealable breaks in the marriage that have been weaponized.