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1. What does the silence mark symbolize? How often does the speaker say it exists in his family's history?

The silence mark signifies the absence of language. The speaker says "there is at least one on every page of the story of [his] family life" (1).

2. What do readers learn of the grandmother's life in the first paragraph? Describe the context.

When discussing the silence mark, the speaker says that it is often used in conversations with his grandmother about her life in Europe during the war.

3. What do we learn of the speaker's family health history in the first paragraph? Describe the context.

When discussing the silence mark, the speaker says that it is often used in conversations with his father about their "family's history of heart disease" (1). We learn that there are 41 heart attacks between the members of his family.

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