Marley and Me Literary Elements

Autobiographical novel, memoirs

Southern USA, late 1990s – early 2000s

We see the first person narration, because the story is the memoir of the author.

The story is soaked with humor, though it has a sad ending. The reader can’t but laugh at the constant dog’s tricks, which are described by the author so vividly and artistically

The protagonists of the story are the Grogans and the king of antagonist is Marley, their dog. They were not the opponents, but they are still opposed in some way here.

The major conflict takes place between John, his wife and their dog, who seems to be not actually a good “present” for them, if we take into account his naughtiness.

The story has several very “tense” moments that changed greatly the lives of the characters: buying of the dog, Jenny’s unhappy pregnancy, having children, death of the dog.

John Grogan calls people to love and value the things that they have. Especially, we ought to appreciate people (or dogs, as in the story) who doesn’t look at our social, financial status, but for our inner world.

The author uses this device when he writes about the advertisement in the newspapers about the dogs. People, who write them, intentionally understate their dogs’ characteristics, describing only their good traits, such as: “Full of zip! I would do well in a home that is quiet while I am learning how to control my energy level. I have not had an easy life so my new family will need to be patient with me and continue to teach me my doggie manners.” If they had written that their dogs are turbulent and restless, nobody would have wanted to buy their pets.

The name of the dog – Marley – stands here as an allusion to the famous reggae-singer Bob Marley, the favorite singer of John and Jenny.

The narrator uses imagery mostly when telling about Marley's tricks, so give a vivid description of those. Also nature is rather often described.

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The author uses this device when telling about the changes of seasons and, meanwhile, the changes in the characters’ lives: the reader can notice that when the Grogans buy the dog it’s the end of the winter/beginning of spring outside, when Marley is in the prime of life, it’s the hot summer and when he is getting ill and dies, it’s the cold winter.

Grogan often uses these devices to make his story more replete and vivid. For example, he uses “face” instead of “dog”, staring at John, or “The Baby Thing” instead of “the thoughts about the future baby” in the phrase “The Baby Thing, as I called it, had become a constant in Jenny’s life and was getting bigger by the day.”

The author often personifies different things to make the narration more alive and vivid, such as the cue, which “would bring him [Marley] abruptly back” etc.