The brainwashed parents
In "I CAN SPEAK!" the parents are a symbol for what is wrong with society, because they are in charge of making a new member of society (their child), but instead of helping him understand his true nature, they shove a mask on his face and kick back to watch the child entertain them. The point is that their overexposure to commercialized entertainment has left them with a misunderstanding of human nature, and they aren't ready for what the child has to say.
The infant's voice
When the parents strap the mask onto their baby, they expect the child will be amusing. But, actually, the child quickly becomes quite horrifying to them. This can be seen as a symbol for human nature, because the child has had no reason to modify its instincts. Because the child is only partially able to understand the external world, the symbolic child is a depiction of animal instincts and the sublime, because the kid only knows what its instincts tell it. The symbol is close to l'enfant sauvage.
Entertainment as motif
The purpose of entertainment is tacitly accepted by adults in one way, but to the children, it is another way. This forms a motif that points to a dilemma in the modern conception of entertainment. First of all, entertainment is viewed by the adults as a distraction from unpleasantness (because that's the kind of entertainment that makes money for the big businesses that mass produce entertainment programs). To the children, though, it is essential and divine. They seek to express the ineffable quality of their own soul.
Media
The motif of media is obvious throughout the stories, but perhaps the most potent detail is that the sun in "My Flamboyant Grandson" is visually depicted as the logo for the mainstream media company CBS. This makes the media into a religious symbol, meaning that the reader should look for instances in the story where the characters worship their entertainment by giving it their time, their money, and by raising their children according to the principles found in mainstream entertainment.
The class
In "My Flamboyant Grandson," the child is enrolled in classes that are allegedly supposed to teach him how to act and how to be a performer. Instead, they brainwash the kid with the principles of entertainment that help make money for big businesses. The class is a symbol for the affects that a culture has on the development of a child's psychology. One could easily imagine this boy getting the wrong idea about life.
