The Virgin Suicides

by

Jeffrey Eugenides

Peter Sissen Character Analysis

Peter Sissen is one of the neighborhood boys who obsess over the Lisbon sisters. Before the suicides, Peter is the only neighborhood boy to ever enter the Lisbon house. This comes about because he helped Mr. Lisbon hang a model solar system in his classroom, earning him an invitation to have dinner at the Lisbon house. At one point during the meal, he excuses himself to go to the bathroom and ends up in the sisters’ bathroom, where he does some snooping. He finds Mary’s hidden makeup and a used Tampax that he thinks belonged to Lux. Afterwards, he proudly tells the other boys what he found, focusing particularly on the Tampax. By bragging in this way, he motivates Paul Baldino to sneak into the Lisbon house himself.

Peter Sissen Quotes in The Virgin Suicides

The The Virgin Suicides quotes below are all either spoken by Peter Sissen or refer to Peter Sissen . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Obsession, Gossip, and Scandal Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

He inventoried deodorants and perfumes and scouring pads for rubbing away dead skin, and we were surprised to learn that there were no douches anywhere because we had thought girls douched every night like brushing their teeth. But our disappointment was forgotten in the next second when Sissen told us of a discovery that went beyond our wildest imaginings. In the trash can was one Tampax, spotted, still fresh from the insides of one of the Lisbon girls. Sissen said that he wanted to bring it to us, that it wasn’t gross but a beautiful thing, you had to see it, like a modern painting or something, and then he told us he had counted twelve boxes of Tampax in the cupboard.

Related Characters: The Neighborhood Boys (speaker), Mr. Lisbon, Peter Sissen
Page Number: 7-8
Explanation and Analysis:

Paul Baldino said it was a barbecue, and we believed him. But, as time passed, we noticed that no one ever used it. The papers said the barbecue had cost $50,000 to install, but not one hamburger or hot dog was ever grilled upon it. Soon the rumor began to circulate that the tree trunk was an escape tunnel, that it led to a hideaway along the river where Sammy the Shark kept a speedboat, and that the workers had hung tarps to conceal the digging. Then, a few months after the rumors began, Paul Baldino began emerging in people’s basements, through the storm sewers.

Related Characters: The Neighborhood Boys (speaker), Peter Sissen , Paul Baldino , Sammy “The Shark” Baldino
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:

Peter Sissen acted as our leader, and even looked slightly bored, saying again and again, “Wait’ll you see this.” The door opened. Above us, the face of Mrs. Lisbon took form in the dimness. She told us to come in, we bumped against each other getting through the doorway, and as soon as we set foot on the hooked rug in the foyer we saw that Peter Sissen’s descriptions of the house had been all wrong. Instead of a heady atmosphere of feminine chaos, we found the house to be a tidy, dry-looking place that smelled faintly of popcorn.

Related Characters: The Neighborhood Boys (speaker), Peter Sissen (speaker), Mr. Lisbon, Mrs. Lisbon, Dr. Hornicker
Related Symbols: Elm Trees and the Lisbon House
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis:
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Peter Sissen Quotes in The Virgin Suicides

The The Virgin Suicides quotes below are all either spoken by Peter Sissen or refer to Peter Sissen . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Obsession, Gossip, and Scandal Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

He inventoried deodorants and perfumes and scouring pads for rubbing away dead skin, and we were surprised to learn that there were no douches anywhere because we had thought girls douched every night like brushing their teeth. But our disappointment was forgotten in the next second when Sissen told us of a discovery that went beyond our wildest imaginings. In the trash can was one Tampax, spotted, still fresh from the insides of one of the Lisbon girls. Sissen said that he wanted to bring it to us, that it wasn’t gross but a beautiful thing, you had to see it, like a modern painting or something, and then he told us he had counted twelve boxes of Tampax in the cupboard.

Related Characters: The Neighborhood Boys (speaker), Mr. Lisbon, Peter Sissen
Page Number: 7-8
Explanation and Analysis:

Paul Baldino said it was a barbecue, and we believed him. But, as time passed, we noticed that no one ever used it. The papers said the barbecue had cost $50,000 to install, but not one hamburger or hot dog was ever grilled upon it. Soon the rumor began to circulate that the tree trunk was an escape tunnel, that it led to a hideaway along the river where Sammy the Shark kept a speedboat, and that the workers had hung tarps to conceal the digging. Then, a few months after the rumors began, Paul Baldino began emerging in people’s basements, through the storm sewers.

Related Characters: The Neighborhood Boys (speaker), Peter Sissen , Paul Baldino , Sammy “The Shark” Baldino
Page Number: 10
Explanation and Analysis:

Peter Sissen acted as our leader, and even looked slightly bored, saying again and again, “Wait’ll you see this.” The door opened. Above us, the face of Mrs. Lisbon took form in the dimness. She told us to come in, we bumped against each other getting through the doorway, and as soon as we set foot on the hooked rug in the foyer we saw that Peter Sissen’s descriptions of the house had been all wrong. Instead of a heady atmosphere of feminine chaos, we found the house to be a tidy, dry-looking place that smelled faintly of popcorn.

Related Characters: The Neighborhood Boys (speaker), Peter Sissen (speaker), Mr. Lisbon, Mrs. Lisbon, Dr. Hornicker
Related Symbols: Elm Trees and the Lisbon House
Page Number: 22
Explanation and Analysis: