43 pages • 1 hour read
John GroganMarley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
John Grogan
John is the author of the story and Marley’s owner. His narrative voice is casual and humorous, with occasional sarcasm. He works as a writer for a leading newspaper in Palm Beach at the beginning of the story, then leaves his position to take an editing role at a gardening magazine in Pennsylvania before returning to writing columns. He enjoys the freedom and flexibility of his writing work, the thrill of making a deadline, and the intrigue of searching for a new angle. He thrives on feedback from his readers. Reader responses to his column following Marley’s death are largely what persuade John to expand the article into this full-length book.
John realizes early on that Marley is not the ideal purebred Labrador, but he never considers letting Marley go. Even when Jenny goes through a difficult period of postpartum depression and reaches her limit with Marley’s behavior, John works with Marley to improve his training and avoid triggering Jenny’s anger. John admits his own role in letting Marley get away with his antics; he gives in to Marley’s whimpering on the very first night home from the breeder after letting Marley sit on his lap on the drive, immediately establishing him as a weak-willed master. Throughout the story John acknowledges Marley’s flaws but sympathizes with his poorly trained companion.
John’s narrative follows his own midlife changes and experiences. The narrative opens with John and Jenny as newly married and career-oriented professionals; over the course of Marley’s lifetime, John transitions to a married man in his forties with three children. He leaves the hustle of column writing for a quiet editorial position at a gardening magazine, and he learns from Marley how to appreciate and embrace life’s small moments of joy. Coincidentally, Marley’s eternally puppyish nature also inspires John to return to column writing, where John can again feel like he’s seizing noteworthy moments in his work each day and connecting with readers who make his work worthwhile.
Marley
Marley is a purebred yellow Labrador retriever. He is large, destructive, and needy, but also loyal and loving. His poor behavior is assumed to have been inherited from his father. John describes Marley as being not good at much, “but he was unquestionably loyal” (139). Marley dies near the end of the story at 13 years old. He is put to sleep after suffering repeated stomach and hip issues. Marley’s death brings on a period of reflection for John as he learns to navigate daily life without his companion of 13 years.
Marley is frequently compared to ideal Labrador retrievers. Guides and testimonials rave about the Labrador’s intelligence, gentle nature, calm personality, and trainability; Marley demonstrates less desirable Labrador qualities such as boundless energy, excitability, emotional dependency, and difficulty with obedience training (17). Constant comparisons to ideal Labradors cast a tone of disappointment and suspense over Marley. John and Jenny struggle to come to terms with their dysfunctional specimen of a classic American family pet, never knowing what he’ll destroy next. They eventually reconcile with Marley’s lack of obedience, adjusting their own habits to accommodate his nuances, and realize they love him not despite his flaws but because of them.
Marley’s role in the Grogan family evolves and solidifies throughout the story. He begins as a way for Jenny to bridge the leap from caring for a plant to caring for children. He is the Grogans’ first attempt at nurturing and discipline before they have children. When Jenny suffers as miscarriage, Marley is her comforter. As the family grows and the surrounding neighborhood becomes more dangerous, Marley emerges as a protector as well. Marley’s joy at simple pleasures teaches John to also enjoy the small moments in life.
Jenny Grogan
Jenny is John’s wife and a professional writer as well. At the beginning of the story John and Jenny write for rival newspapers in town. Once she becomes a mother, Jenny’s work takes a secondary role, and she shifts to writing part time. Caring for Marley brings out a nurturing side of Jenny that surprises John. Jenny experiences a miscarriage, an extended period of bedrest, and postpartum depression early in the story. John attempts to narrate these experiences from an outsider’s perspective as Jenny closes herself off emotionally. During that time she has little patience for Marley’s lack of obedience and threatens to send him away. She makes a full recovery from postpartum depression and comes back to being her dancing, happily sarcastic self.
Despite several reproductive challenges, pregnancy and parenthood suit Jenny. She supports John, agreeing to move when he gets the job of his dreams as an editor, and then supports him again when he moves on to his next dream job. Not much explanation is given for her own decision to move to writing part time other than motherhood in general. Her ambitions and reasons for writing in the first place aren’t developed in the story, and her career fades quietly to the background as the Grogan family grows, emphasizing her role as partner and mother rather than professional writer. This is a contrast to John, who explains his own ambitions and choices throughout the narrative. Jenny’s voice is heard through conversation with John and other characters, but her thoughts and feelings aren’t explained in detail, making her an important but less developed character in comparison.
