#we showed up and immediately ran into people from my dad's pueblo and they tried to get him to join their performance 😭

[natalia-lafourcade]

Went to an indigenous event today!!!1

[readingraebow]

Red Dragon Section Three

Chapters 22-35

1. What is taken from Hannibal in chapter 24? Why? What material possession would you hate to lose the most? Anytime Hannibal does something wrong, his punishment is that they take his books. Since he helped Dolarhyde and they all obviously know it now, they come to take his books. And honestly that would also be what I would hate to lose most. I love my little library so much and it makes me so happy. When I go on vacation I usually also take a giant bag full of books "just in case". And it's usually almost as big as my suitcase, haha. And honestly one of my greatest fears is my apartment catching on fire because I couldn't save all my books.

2. What was Francis’ early childhood like? So his parents didn't really want him. He was born with cleft palette and when the hospital finally showed his mom the baby, she literally screamed... and left the hospital without him. She had her marriage annulled and then remarried a rich guy, like two years later. So Francis was sent to an orphanage and it was attempted to fix his cleft palette but basically it was fixed enough for him to be able to each successfully and that was about it. Okay so later his dad contacted his mom and wanted to get back together and be a family with her and the baby. She told him that the baby was born dead and hung up. Then he showed up at her boardinghouse with a suitcase and told her it was her fault that the baby was stillborn and he didn't even think it was his. It was then that she told him about the "monster" he'd created. He told his mother about it and blamed her for the deformity. He was cut in half by a streetcar a week later. His mother then went to the orphanage and took Francis back home with her. She ran a nursing home out of her large house and that's where Francis grew up.

3. What happens to Francis’ grandmother in chapter 27? To Francis? His grandmother gets dementia and starts going steadily downhill. She starts getting meaner and treating all of her employees so badly, she can't keep anyone. All of them quit almost immediately after starting. The only one who stays is the cook who has been with the family for years. Until Francis' grandmother slaps her in the face and she quits. But she calls Marian before she leaves and Marian shows up two weeks later. By that time, nothing is going well? And it turns out Francis' grandmother had a stroke so they take her to a sanatorium to recover. Welfare works picked up all the patients. And Francis went home with his mother. And his new stepbrother and stepsisters. All of whom were, um, lovely O.O

4. Why was Francis sent away from his mother’s house? How did he end up in the army? He was sent away because he hung his sister's cat. Though it was clear no one really wanted him there anyway. He lived with them for only a month. That's when he was nine. After that he was sent to boarding school. Then, when he was seventeen, he was caught entering a woman's window and was given the choice of either enlisting in the army or facing charges. He chose the army. And it honestly ended up being really good for him??

5. Who is Reba McClane? Why didn’t Francis kill her? Reba McClane works for Baeder Chemical, which is the company next door to Gateway, where Dolarhyde works. Baeder is working on developing infrared photography. Dolarhyde has decided he wants to shoot the next murder in infrared so he goes over there to see if he can get some film but he does it under the guise of a dryer problem he'd seen in a memo a few weeks ago. That's where he meets Reba. He doesn't kill her because she's too close to home, it's too early in his Becoming and if he killed her, he wouldn't be able to look at her anymore. Plus, he's been seen with her.

6. In chapter 32, the people of Chicago are getting worried as the next full moon approaches. Has there ever been a murderer on the loose where you lived? If so, how did people react? Uh, yes and no. There were 19 prisons in the county where I grew up. So sometimes there were escaped prisoners. So there's never been a serial killer on the loose where I've lived. But there have definitely been murderers. Though that's a whole different beast because escaped prisoners didn't usually stay around the country. It was filled with small towns and they would've been spotted immediately. So they usually tried to head somewhere bigger like Pueblo or Colorado Springs. I can imagine that having a serial killer in your town would be MUCH scarier. Since you never know exactly where they're going to strike or who is going to be next.

7. What was Francis’ surprise for Reba? He took her to the zoo. They had a tiger who had chipped a tooth that they would be repairing. Francis really had taken the film to the zoo and, as a favor, the zoo let him bring Reba so she could touch the tiger while it's sedated for its tooth surgery. Reba ends up really loving it and both the zoo director and the dentist really enjoy showing her around the tiger and telling her all about it.

8. What happened at the gas station between Francis and the attendant? So the attendant insisted on washing the windshield, particularly the passenger's side. It turns out this was just so he could look up Reba's skirt. Francis catches him and it's basically all he can do not to kill him. He imagines stabbing him with the metal spout from the oil can. Instead he slams him up against the van. And he also sticks the spout down his pants. He tells him not to run because he can catch him anywhere he goes.

  Section Three Reading Journal

Okay so. This section was absolutely fascinating!! I honestly don’t remember either of the films going into Dolarhyde’s childhood. But it’s also been a while since I’ve seen them. But honestly everything about his childhood was fascinating. It’s definitely a look at ~what makes him tick.

And I also really love Reba. So I’m glad she showed up in this section. Honestly this whole section was very Dolarhyde-centric and I feel like we barely checked in with any of the other characters? I know they appeared in chapters here and there but, for this most part, this was A Complete History of Francis Dolarhyde. I’m not mad at it though. I thought it was fascinating.

So I’m enjoying this book quite a lot and I can’t wait to read the last section!!