The overriding element in the story "He" is the many uses of symbolism. First there is the silence of the son He, the main focus of the story. He is mute and thus cannot verbalize his feelings or his experience, and therefore cannot overtly make his identity known. He is at the mercy of others to express these most elementary ingredients that make up his definition: how he thinks, what he feels. At least, this is what the most surface portion of this story tries to imply. This is the way that Mrs. Whipple sees her son. She believes that she must cover up his silence, on one hand, making excuses and exaggerating his gifts, as well as her love, so the neighbors will ignore his inability to speak. On the other hand, Mrs. Whipple uses his silence to ignore him. He does speak, in reality, not by...