Character Clues
Character Analysis
Social Status
In the Skin Hunger setting, what social status you're born into makes a huge difference in your toolkit for approaching the world. Lower-class characters like Sadima and Gerrard are consistently more inventive and resourceful than the higher-class characters like Hahp and Somiss, who are used to having everything handed to them on a silver platter (sometimes literally).
For example, check out this climactic moment when someone has set fire to the place where Sadima, Somiss, and Franklin have been living:
Somiss was trying to gather up his papers, dropping some from beneath his arm as he tried to pick up a second stack.
"Use the bedsheets!" she shouted at him. He turned to stare at her. She dragged the linens onto the floor, spreading them out. (63.12-13)
We're not told if Sadima's been through a lot of fires, but she's quick on her feet to point out an obvious solution to the problem (Somiss needing to salvage his research before they skedaddle). Which is probably a good thing, since Somiss likely would have rather burned to death before abandoning his research. It's nice to have a practical thinker on board.
Actions
Since there's so much weird coercion and manipulation in Skin Hunger, it can be a little tricky to figure out how what characters do is related to who they are. But it's still possible.
For instance, Hahp helps Gerrard learn to manifest food and soap for himself, even though Hahp is terrified of the wizards and doesn't want to risk angering them off by disobeying the order not to help the other boys. Sadima, despite staying in the bizarrely abusive living situation with Franklin and Somiss, is constantly carving out time to talk to Franklin to try to get him to leave with her. They never manage to escape together, but the fact that she makes such an effort to get him to consider it says something about her.
Speech and Dialogue
Speech patterns can tell us what's important to a character—or, as with Somiss, what's not important to a character. After the slave boy belonging to Somiss's father escapes from the Somiss/Franklin/Sadima household, Somiss is practically shouting at Franklin for letting the boy get away. Every time Franklin tries to say something calming or helpful, Somiss interrupts and shuts him down. This happens four times (yes, we counted), and during the shouting, Somiss calls Franklin "thick-headed" (41.23).
Yeah, Somiss isn't coming off as a nice guy during this exchange… and we're generally of the opinion that he's not a nice guy, so this whole speech thing is quite telling.
Clothing
The clothing we see characters wearing is not only tied to their social status, but also tells us a bit about their personalities. When the boys are admitted to the academy, Gerrard/Fishboy's clothes are just material possessions to him, nothing he's really attached to:
When Fishboy shrugged his rag-cloth shirt off and stood bare-chested, the wizard nodded approval and pointed at the floor. Fishboy obediently dropped his tunic in front of him and then stepped back to pull off his thin-soled shoes, then his trousers. (14.12)
In contrast, Hahp is super reluctant to undress:
I reached up to touch my shirt front. It was pounded linen, soft as doves' wings. My mother would be upset if she knew I was about to drop it on a gritty stone floor. (14.13)
From this, we learn that Hahp is hesitant and used to listening to his mom.
Sadima is aware that her clothing sends a message about her, but she doesn't have much control over it due to not having much money. When she goes to look for work and she enters the cheese shop, the owner looks her up and down:
Then she shifted uncomfortably when the woman looked her up and down a second time. Sadima knew her dress was tattered and roughly made. She had worn her best one to ask for her, but her best was worse than any dress she had seen on any woman here, aside from the Market Square beggars. (27.9)
Sadima's feelings are understandable—knowing that you look different from everyone else can be tough. But that she goes into the shop to ask for work anyway, let's us know that her pride in herself isn't based on her appearance.