Jonathan Safran Foer’s A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease

“A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease,” by Jonathan Safran Foer

is a novel way of speaking about a heart ailment and the consequences it has on a certain family. The story is told by the family’s son, and the author used the character to suggest ways of punctuating language to indicate silence and the meaning of unspoken words. According to the story, unspoken words encompass a huge portion of the dialogue inside the family and significantly contribute to unsuccessful communication. Grandmother, mother, father, and the children in Foer’s story all have moments that they keep quiet to denote something with the assumption that the other person understands it. Foer creates the new punctuations to show how painful the impacts of heart disease have on individuals and more so on families who have more than one member experiencing attacks.

Part II

Family background can be equated to the socio-cultural values that individuals acquire in the process of growing up. The perceptions, prejudices, judgments, morals, and ethics learned from close family members influence their perceptions of life and also the way they interpret literary works. For instance, an individual born and bred in a wealthy high-class family will often appreciate characters portrayed as rich in a particular literary work. In other words, people apply their experience and knowledge in understanding literary work.

Part III

“Everyday use” by Alice Walker

It is interesting to learn how the writer attempts to expose the differences between the young and old generations. But are the viewpoints of the old and young conflicting as such? I suppose the old and young generation has a lot in common. For instance, what you refer to as the ”fashion world“ is a creation of both generations and so they all have an interest in presenting what they value as the most appropriate.

”The courage that my mother had,“ by Edna St. Vincent Millay

I agree with you that the use of family background helps in evoking emotions because, at the time of putting into words the experiences, writers take themselves back into the events and bring them out on paper as though they were recurring. That is why Foer in the short story ”A Primer for the Punctuation of Heart Disease,“ is capable of showing how silence is a language full of emotions and it relies on the instincts of a person. However, how can the reader know when exaggerated family background is utilized to fulfill the purpose of the writing?