论文_Secret concealed behind the appellation “He”.docVIP

Secret concealed behind the appellation “He” 棗on He by Katherine Anne Porter In the story “He” by Katherine Anne Porter, the main character, Mrs. Whipple is a housewife of a poor, lower-class family who is struggling to feed and clothe their children and make ends meet. As it is said by Mr. Whipple, “it looks like our luck will never let up on us”, the Whipples have to raise a retarded child who is totally incapable of returning their love. What interests all readers a lot is that not once in the story is the retarded child called by a specific given name while the other two of Mrs. Whipple’s children, Emly and Adna, are given names and are referred to by their given names. As the title indicates, the unfortunate child is called “He”. About the appellation “He” According to statistical data, the word “He”, including its accusative form “Him” and possessive form “His”, repeated 343 times. Whether it is spoken out or thought in her mind, “He” is the only appellation for Mrs. Whipple’s son. When it comes to the term of one word, such high frequency of the using of “He” is not normal in any literature works. The abnormal phenomenon, no doubt, will make readers get into meditation that is there any secret lies under the surface of the story about the pitiful mother of a disabled son. After carefully research and closer inspection of the repeatedly used appellation “He”, we will unveil what is concealed behind the simplest pronoun. “He”: treated as an animal To begin with, let’s leave alone the story, the characters, the appellation “He”. Imagine you are in a rural family which possesses an idyllic farm. You have raised several pets including kitties and puppies who accompany you when you are alone, and who have lovely names as Betty, Coral, Harry, etc. However, have you ever noticed that not a single pig or cattle is given a name? How does this happened? Because the pets are your royal friends or even one member of your family while the livestock are only consider j