Marley And Me Sparknotes

Marley & Me has become a household-known story. Everybody knows the loving story of a man by the name of John Grogan and his loveable labrador retriever, Marley. The whole reason and thesis Grogan had for writing this story was to remember all the mischief of getting a playful dog and starting a family. The whole book is an ode to what Grogan calls “life and love with the world’s worst dog”. Throughout the story of Marley’s life experience with the Grogan family, he had a lot of interesting things happen. Some would include swallowing certain items, tearing up furniture, and being blatantly untrainable; those are just to name a few. A prime example of Marley’s troublesome behavior was when he started his obedience classes. Grogan and his

One of the ways that he demolishes things is by eating them. On Jenny’s birthday, John got her an eighteen-karat gold necklace. Of course, on the same day, it disappears. After strenuous searching, they discover Marley, and more importantly, a piece of gold chain hanging from his mouth. Grogan describes the horror that washes over them as they soon realize the reality that a very expensive necklace hangs in the hands, or paws, of a frisky and playful lab. They then begin to circle in on Marley, ready to reach for the pricey piece of jewelry. As they lunge for him, Marley quickly swallows the evidence. The necklace is then lost to the point of only one possible and frankly disgusting, return. Grogan says, “Marley may have won the battle, but we knew it was just a matter of time before we won the war. Nature’s call was on our side. Sooner or later, what went in had to come out. As disgusting as the thought was, I knew...I would find it….Grossed out or not, I was going in” (Grogan 100). After four days of unsatisfying “digging”, John had finally found the

John wrote that he never saw serious behavior in Marley until one night. A scream erupted through the night, waking everyone in the neighborhood. Marley followed closely behind John as he went out to go help. He soon discovered that a young woman had been stabbed in her driveway. A man had come up to her while she was in her car and told her not to do anything, she screamed, and then came the current result. She was hunched over in the driveway in pain when John and Marley found her. John cradled her on the ground and waited with her for help to arrive. While they were waiting, John noticed something peculiar about Marley. His once frantic and playful pup and become an aggressive guard dog. John noted that this behavior had never occurred before in his beloved Marley. “When I looked up, there he stood, ten feet from us, facing the street, in a determined, bull-like crouch I had never seen before. It was a fighter’s stance. His muscles bulged at the neck; his jaw was clenched; the fur between his shoulder blades bristled….If the armed assailant returned, he would have to get past my dog first” (Grogan 118-19). At this point, John realized how much of a best friend Marley really was. John’s life with Marley was a long one, and he is more qualified than anyone to tell the story. Not only did he have Marley as his dog, he