Character Clues
Character Analysis
Location
While the narrators and pretty much everyone in the novel are free to move around the neighborhood, the girls themselves are under the tight control of their mother. She keeps them trapped in the house like prisoners, completely isolating them from potential friends and confidantes.
Since our interactions with others are what help us develop emotionally and socially, we know that the Lisbon girls are going to be stuck not knowing much about life or relationships. Their house is a place of oppression and hopelessness, and the people in it are miserable. The boys, who visit each other's houses and go to school, are pretty normal guys. They live in the world, and while they're a little naïve about romance during the year of the story, they grow up to have jobs and families of their own.
Family Life
We don't know much specific info about the families of the narrators; for the most part they seem like typical suburban families, moms taking care of their homes and kids, dads going to work, barbecuing in the summer, and having the occasional beer. They boys, predictably, are typical, too. They ride their bikes, talk about cars and sports, fantasize about girls, and don't generally get into trouble at school or at home. They describe themselves as "grade-grubbers."
The significant exception is Trip. He's got an unconventional family; his dad's gay and lives with his boyfriend. So we figure that Trip will be unconventional as well. And he is. He's way more sophisticated about the ways of the world. He's sexually experienced but doesn't share any details at all, unlike the virginal boys who are willing to discuss at length any detail about what the Lisbon girls are up to.
If all you knew about the Lisbon family was what Mrs. Lisbon was like, you could predict that her daughters wouldn't be the most well-adjusted teens on the planet. She's rigid, intolerant, and clueless about what her daughters are really about. She keeps them away from other kids their age, fearing they'll be corrupted by the culture outside the family. It's a recipe for rebellion and despair.
Appearances
For the most part, we know very little about what the boys look like, probably because they don't give much though to how they look and, more likely than not, they dress pretty much the same. But that in itself tells us a lot. If they were distinctive, we'd probably hear about it. But they're like their families and their neighborhood—everyone's like everyone else. That homogeneity tells us a lot about the conformist 1970s suburb they live in. The houses are all tidy, with well-kept yards, an elm tree in front, and the usual artifacts of suburban families lying around the yard.
Having said that, there some important exceptions to the rule. Dominic Palazzolo, for one, whose Eurostyle hair and clothes mark him as exotic and different, like you'd expect a new immigrant might be. And he acts the part, melodramatically jumping off the roof to demonstrate his undying devotion to a neighborhood girl.
Then there's Trip Fontaine, who looks and dresses like none of the other boys. He's got a stoner look, long hair, sexy tan, wears tight jeans and cologne. His appearance just screams confidence and sex appeal, and signals that something's up that sets him apart from the other kids. Sure enough, we learn that Trip's home life is totally unconventional. He lives with his dad and his dad's boyfriend. He and his father are more like friends, and we get description of them wearing the same robes and the same dark tans. Trip's premature adult experiences cause him trouble later on as his drug use gets out of control.
The sisters, of course, have a distinctive appearance that marks them as different from the get-go. Cecilia in her tattered wedding dress tells us she's just strange. The girls are forced to dress in shapeless clothes, and we can guess how they feel about that. Later in the novel, they're disheveled and emaciated, a sure sign of emotional distress.