What does Richard's father come to represent in Richard's life?

Richard's dad represents fear and a total abdication of fatherly responsibilities. Richard's represented a lack of positive male influence in his life,

He was the lawgiver in our family and I never laughed in his presence. I used to lurk timidly in the kitchen doorway and watch his huge body sitting slumped at the table. I stared at him with awe as he gulped his beer from a tin bucket, as he ate long and heavily, sighed, belched, closed his eyes to nod on a stuffed belly. He was quite fat and his bloated stomach always lapped over his belt. He was always a stranger to me, always somehow alien and remote. ch 1