" My old man, he got a regular check from the government, but it wasn't very much and he sometimes forgot to give it to me before he drank it up." (P 46) It is clear that his father's unhealthy lifestyle influences Rusty, as he begins drinking heavily himself. Rusty's life also lacks a maternal influence, as his mother abandoned her husband and two sons while Rusty and his brother were infants.
Legs Sadovsky also lacks supportive parental figures in her life. Her mother passed away during her infancy and her father is physically abusive and rarely present to raise her. Legs" father constantly engages in alcoholic activity and enters into affairs with various women. He does not monitor her school attendance or progress or show interest in her activities. When he disappears from the city for weeks at a time, her father often sends her to live with her grandmother without returning, leaving Legs to hitchhike her way home or sneak into her the homes of her friends for shelter. The drunken Ab Sadovsky has violent tendencies and would beat his daughter regularly when she was a child: " when her father slapped her years ago, sent her flying across the room and against the sharp edge of the table." (Oates 16).
Due to the lack of love provided by their parents, Legs and Rusty look to their peers to fill sturdy parental roles. Because his father does not involve himself in Rusty's life, Rusty comes to idolize and seek affection from his older brother, the infamous Motorcycle Boy. Rusty regards Motorcycle Boy as a friend instead of a brother: "He was the coolest person in the world. Even if he hadn't been my brother he would have been the coolest person in the world." Instead of looking up to his heedless father, Rusty aims to gain approval from Motorcycle Boy. He often makes decisions based on the examples that Motorcycle Boy sets, as when he avoids the use of drugs to alleviate his pain after a fight.