Hailey

 Marley & Me     Summary: // Marley & Me // is a dog story with a twist; instead of describing a great or beautiful dog like Lassie or Old Yeller, it outlines the life of what the author believes to be the world’s //worst// dog but it becomes the world’s best dog in an indirect way. The book is narrated in first-person by John Grogan who tells about how he and his wife decide to adopt a Labrador puppy prior to having kids themselves as practice; seeing as how they can’t even seem to keep houseplants alive. After merely days of having him home, they discover that he is extremely excitable and steals, chews, and slobbers on everything and anything within his reach. He even attempts to swallow shoes and the couple’s paychecks before finally achieving success with a gold chain necklace. And to add to his list of difficulties, Marley is desperately afraid of thunderstorms. When John and his wife return to their house one night, they find the garage looking like complete chaos with things littered everywhere and a hole gouged in the door. Despite the title, the book is also about other things besides Marley. It also talks about John and Jenny’s kids that they eventually have as well as a miscarriage and how their whole family reacts to situations. Another thing the book describes is the conflicts in John’s job as a reporter and columnist and how he works for several different employers throughout the book as well as the several times that their family moves throughout Florida and Pennsylvania.

Theme: To me, one of the main themes in Marley & Me is about loving life and taking advantage of every minute. Marley, amid all of his exuberance, lives every second of his life to fullest it could possibly be and enjoying everything it throws at him; a major point that the author, John Grogan, I think is trying to get across to the reader. If Marley had a motto, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it would be, "You only live once!"- a fact that he uses to its full potential. Another sort of mischievous theme of the book could definitely be that some things are just plain worth the consequences. Marley is the perfect example of this. He steals things and eats things and ruins things, yet gets punished every time. So why would he keep doing it anyway if he knows that he's just going to get into trouble again? I believe that it is not just because Marley's a complete boneheaded, idiot dog, but instead because he just has so much fun doing whatever is landing him in trouble that it is worth whatever consequences and punishment he ends up receiving. John Grogan can possibly also be telling us by this that getting into a little trouble can be healthy sometimes. In my opinion, this world would be no fun whatsoever if the wasn't ever the possibility of getting caught or into trouble. Isn't it the same theory with things like scary movies and such? For example, in a horror movie, what would be the point if you knew exactly what was going to happen and when? In the book, even John Grogan who is expected to play the role of a perfect father and journalist, finds himself doing things without thinking or taking chances he probably shouldn't have. Finally, the last but possibly most important theme in Marley & Me is unconditional love. No matter what Marley goes through or what events are thrown upon him, he bounces back to lick and jump on his family in a display of pure devotion. I think that this is one of the reasons that people obtain pets, such as dogs for example, because no matter what you might have done or said that day, even if it might have been the opposite of benevolent exactly, they love you all the same. Pets don't care what you look like, talk like, act like, the list could go on forever. The fact is that they love without reason. This is such an important idea I think John Grogan is trying to get across. The author, from my perspective, is implying some major themes in his work about life and certainly how to live it. I completely agree with his ideas, and I think that he uses the perfect example to demonstrate them. I mean, what could be better than a dog to explain living life to the fullest, getting into trouble, and love? The cover really does say, "Life and love with the world's worst dog!" I believe that these are all important ideas that we all should learn and try to apply to our own lives.

My Opinions: In //Marley & Me// I really like that it was easily relatable. It might have just been the fact that the author writes about everyday events that really could happen to anyone (especially dog owners) or it could have been that it is sort of like my own life. Our dog has done some crazy and destructive things, like chewing on the side of our house for example, and my dad always threatens to take him to the pound, so I can really imagine the things that Marley does because I know exactly what dogs are really capable of. I also liked the way John Grogan wrote the book because it was descriptive and funny as well as personable. One thing that I didn’t really like about the book though was that the dog died at the end, and I don’t mean that in the way that I was sad. In nearly every single book that I have read that have a dog as a major character, the dog never seems to make it to the last page. You could say that an ending like that is inevitable though, seeing as how everything dies eventually, but it still would have been nice to have a dog actually make it all the way through its own book. Finally, possibly the thing I like the most about //Marley & Me// was the fact that it was interesting and funny. As well as that, it was also unique in the way that I have never read anything like it before. Though it was nonfiction, it was more attention-holding and descriptive than some fiction books I have read, and to add to that, I liked the message that it gave because the book used a perfect example to describe it. media type="youtube" key="mXU1N0xIXpc" height="344" width="425"

[|www.amazon.com/marleyandme] [|www.johngroganbooks.com]