◻ The 'silence mark' signifies an absence of language, and there is at least one on every page of the story of my family life. Most often used in conversations I have with my grandmother about her life in Europe during the war, and in conversations with my father about our family's history of heart disease – we have forty-one heart attacks between us, and counting – the silence mark is a staple of familial punctuation.
-- Narrator (N/A)

Importance: This quote opens the story, and establishes the structure of the "primer" that the rest of the story will follow. Here, readers are introduced to the first of many punctuation marks that the speaker uses to characterize his family's communication. Additionally, readers learn about the family's fraught personal history in this first paragraph, showcasing early on the reason behind the family's unique conversations.

The best example of this usage occurred when I was a boy. My grandmother...
-- Narrator (N/A)