Character Clues
Character Analysis
Family Life
We don't become ourselves in a vacuum. Our personalities, preferences, and neuroses aren't entirely a result of our childhoods, but certainly the way we grow up influences those things. So if your family abuses you, it's safe to say you're going to have issues.
As a teenager, David responds to his parents' neglect by stealing the family car (only for a night, but still, he ends up in jail), running away from boarding school, and ultimately leaving home at age sixteen. In the meantime, his parents remain totally clueless. They're more concerned about maintaining appearances than having happy kids.
David shows the farce of his parents' marriage through his dad's continuous attempts to placate his mom. As the family scowls at their plates over dinner, his dad says, "Mmm! Tasty meatloaf, Mama!" (3.109). What he doesn't say is, "What's wrong with my family, and what can I do to fix it?" David's family is deeply damaged by their inability to communicate; years and years of denial and deceit have scarred them all. We learn about characters from what they say, but in the case of the Smalls, we learn more about them from what they don't.
Physical Appearances
Obviously, characters' appearances are important in comics. We trust that Superman can save the day when we see his bulging muscles and cape, we know the Riddler's out to confuse us because he wears a costume covered in question marks, and we know the adults in Stitches are inscrutable because they have no eyes behind their glasses. You'll notice, if you look closely, that almost every adult in the book wears them. The one notable exception is Mrs. Dillon, who's also the one adult who's kind to David.
There's a psychological test in which the viewer attempts to read the emotions of others through close-up photographs of their eyes. In Stitches, the rare glimpses of characters' eyes are usually in transitional moments, such as when David's mom shakes him and tells him not to call his grandmother crazy, or when his dad leans over his hospital bed after his first surgery with, as David calls it, "unnatural bonhomie" (3.195). And when David catches his mom in bed with Mrs. Dillon, he also catches her without her glasses. Sure, she's undressed, but it's the look in her eyes—to which Small devotes a full-page panel—that really makes her appear naked.
Note that in contrast, David doesn't wear glasses at all, either as a child or as an adult. He's the truth-seeker, the clear-eyed one. We see from his appearance that David's the character with nothing to hide.
Speech and Dialogue
By "speech and dialogue," we of course mean the lack thereof—Stitches is more about what isn't said than what is. After all, this is a book about losing your voice.
Small starts the story by telling us about the alternate languages his family members used instead of, y'know, the talking kind. "Mama had her little cough," he writes. "Once or twice, some quiet sobbing, out of sight […] or the slamming of kitchen cupboard doors. That was her language" (1.18-22). His dad beats a punching bag; his brother furiously plays drums. "And I, too, had learned a way of expressing myself wordlessly…" David writes. "Getting sick. That was my language" (1.30; 1.37). Good times.
Indeed, Small defines his characters, including himself, by what they're unable to say. The major exception is his grandmother, whose thick Indiana accent indicates that she's less educated than the rest of his family. When David corrects her for saying ain't, his fate is sealed. It's not long before she's dragging him up to the bathroom and scalding his hands as punishment. David learns that speaking up can be dangerous, but in the end, he decides to strengthen his vocal cords and do it anyway—it's the only way he'll ever find freedom or peace.