If the description in Chapter 1 of the Bragg house is symbolic of the Randy Bragg character, what might it show?

Along with the ancestral past shared by Randy Bragg and
the house ("shared" metaphorically by the house), they also share a present and a
future, and there is a dual aspect to the present and future states
they share. In the present, both are in states of "disrepair," with
Randy not remembering, "exactly," when he "started taking a drink or two before
breakfast," and with the house showing its "ungainly and monolithic" side more than its
Victorian, bay-windowed elegant side. In the future, it is the
inner character--and the structural character--of the man and the house that will be
most importantly symbolized by the Cold War era present-day
Bragg House.

While man and house may have fallen into disreputable
conditions in the present, it is the deeply embedded strength in the Bragg character
that the house will most importantly symbolize in the very
near future. The house, though presently seen as ungainly by the standards of the Cold
War era, is "tall" "monolithic" "broad." When Mark's foretold "Alas, Babylon" comes
about (a day after his foretelling) and the civilized world comes crashing down in a
blaze of brimstone, the strength that is in Randy Bragg--and in the house (both
structurally and symbolically)--is enlarged and looms in the foreground of catastrophe
as he shelters, provides water for, feeds and protects friends, loved ones, his "wards"
and neighbors: In the strength and nobility symbolized by
the Victorian house, Randy ushers in a new civilized community with its bastion the old,
worn out "monolithic" house that now is the shelter that Randy offers
[bastion: something that protects that which is in
danger].

Food for thought: The symbolism
can be carried further and applied to the Victorian--and even more ancient--values the
Bragg family and the Bragg family house represent with a discussion of the place of
those values in the "present day" (whether Bragg's present day or our present day) and
in "the future" after the occurrence of whatever catastrophe overtakes humanity from
whatever quarter and in whatever form: Will those dilapidated, monolithic "Victorian"
values be the stay and stanchion that saves and shelters us, restoring order and
civilization, as they saved and sheltered Randy Bragg and his fledgling community as
these nestled under the wing of the Victorian house with its "broad brick chimneys"
[stanchion: a strong upright supporting brace]?