IndexIntroductionFailure to follow punctuation rules in The RoadConclusionIntroductionIf a student tells his teacher that adhering to grammatical rules is not necessary for acceptable writing, the teacher will most likely refuse faced with the student's statement and continue to reinforce the need for correct punctuation. If someone asked Cormac McCarthy about the need for punctuation, he would probably answer the same way he answered in a 2008 interview with Oprah Winfrey: “There's no reason to stain the page with strange little marks. I mean, if you write correctly, you shouldn't have punctuation." McCarthy dispenses with common punctuation rules in his novel The Road to convey the novel's underlying messages in a simplistic style. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailored message essay on “Why Should Violent Video Games Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Disdain for Punctuation Rules in The Road McCarthy's biggest deviation from conventional punctuation rules exists in his lack of quotation marks in dialogue : "Can I ask you something? / Yes, certainly. / Will we die? / Not now south.” McCarthy's decision to refrain from quotation marks heavily influences how the reader interprets tone. Leaving aside the quotes, the text appears bare, strikingly similar to the sterile setting of the novel Desolation of the World. The reader needs to know as much about the world as possible to understand the stark difference between life today and the atmosphere of The Road. McCarthy's dialogue also helps the audience understand the close bond between the man and the boy. The dialogue flows in such a way that the reader can almost hear the sweet conversation between the two characters. The atmosphere created by the absence of quotes reflects the solemn tone of the post-apocalyptic world. Furthermore, quotation marks do not seem necessary for the audience to understand the verbal communication and differentiate one character's dialogue from another. McCarthy not only simplifies his writing, but by excluding the quotation marks, he actually expands the meaning of the text. Although McCarthy occasionally inserts commas and colons into his writing, he largely keeps punctuation to a minimum. In most cases, McCarthy chooses not to place a comma before conjunctions in compound sentences. An example of this can be found in the sentence: “They ate well but they were still far from the coast” (McCarthy 213). Generally, a comma appears before the conjunction “but”. However, McCarthy chooses to simplify the sentence by refraining from using a comma and thus conveying the same meaning with less complexity. Most of the commas in The Road appear to be part of the dialogue attribution. For example, McCarthy writes: "This is our new lamp, he said." Also on the same page, the text reads, “Come, said the man” (McCarthy 135). The audience may assume that McCarthy includes commas around the dialogue attribution to distinguish text from speech, which is especially helpful with the lack of quotation marks. Colons appear more sparingly within the text. When McCarthy incorporates a colon, it creates a contrast to the sterile nature of the rest of the sentences. The contrast places emphasis on the information that precedes and follows the colon. One passage states: “In the morning the boy said nothing, and when they were ready and ready to set out he turned and looked back at their camp and said, She is gone, isn't she? And he said, Yes, it is” (McCarthy 58). This step is made up of two colons, which add the double."