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.
Chapters 11-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Things He Ate”
John and Jenny keep this pregnancy a secret. Jenny is healthy but experiences severe morning sickness. She worries excessively over small things like having baby socks weeks before the baby is born. John pours his attention into training Marley, who learns entertaining tricks but still eats everything. Despite some progress in obedience training, Marley’s “default setting was stuck on eternal incorrigibility” (96). His continuous ingestion of household items makes him throw up regularly on the Grogans’ favorite rug. They still cannot leave Marley home alone without worrying that he will destroy or eat something. John gives Jenny a gold necklace for her birthday, which Marley promptly eats. John and Jenny spend days dissecting Marley’s droppings in search of the necklace. When they do find it, it’s far shinier than before, and every time Jenny wears the necklace John thinks of the four days he spent poking through and washing away dog poop to recover it.
Chapter 12 Summary: “Welcome to the Indigent Ward”
The Grogans arrange for a private birthing suite, but none are available when Jenny enters the early stages of labor. Jenny is taken to a second labor ward where nurses speak in Spanish and “brown-skinned men holding straw hats in rugged hands waited nervously” (104). John acknowledges the disparity between the two maternity wards and the parallel disparities between the wealthy and the poor in Palm Beach County. Jenny’s doctor insists that the bare-bones “indigent ward” is one of the safest places to deliver a baby, explaining that poor women often lack prenatal care and are at higher risk in pregnancy and delivery, so the nurses in this ward are highly prepared (105). Jenny delivers their son Patrick safely, and John celebrates with his fellow fathers-to-be in the hallway.
John attempts to prepare Marley for Patrick’s arrival by bringing home items from the hospital. Marley likes the baby’s diapers and enters “an altered state of consciousness, a sort of Pampers-induced trance” when he smells them (108). John realizes that Marley is more a danger to the diaper pail than he is to the new baby. Marley and Patrick become best buddies, and John and Jenny settle into parenthood. John is promoted to the coveted position of columnist, and Jenny becomes pregnant again.
Chapter 13 Summary: “A Scream in the Night”
Jenny’s late-night pregnancy cravings send John on errands at odd hours. He notices there are prostitutes in the area now, and multiple murders occur in the immediate neighborhood. Marley is now fully grown, and his presence keeps the Grogans feeling secure in their home. Although the Grogan family knows and trusts Marley, strangers are easily intimidated by his size and energy.
A teenage girl in the neighborhood is stabbed late at night. John arrives on the scene with Marley, and they comfort the girl until the police arrive. Marley acts fiercely protective of the girl despite having just met her: “Somehow he knew how serious this was. He just knew. He felt the danger, and he was like a completely different dog” (120). The teenage victim survives and returns to thank John and Marley for helping her.
Chapter 14 Summary: “An Early Arrival”
Jenny goes into labor 21 weeks into her pregnancy. The doctors prevent an early delivery, but Jenny is put on strict bedrest. She remains in the hospital for nearly two weeks, and John becomes lenient about Marley’s discipline and Patrick’s care at home. John’s Aunt Anita arrives to restore order to the household. Jenny is released from the hospital and must remain on bedrest at home. Marley takes up a regular spot by her bed.
When Aunt Anita returns home, the order she established in the Grogan household disappears. John has less time and even less energy as he tries to work his full-time job, care for both Patrick and Jenny, and keep Marley in order. Jenny becomes distant and dismayed as the days pass idly. Jenny goes into labor as soon as her bedrest ends and safely delivers their second son, Conor.
Chapter 15 Summary: “A Postpartum Ultimatum”
Jenny doesn’t emerge from the distant mood that descended upon her while on bedrest. Both John and Jenny are exhausted and sleep deprived with two children under two years old. Jenny is concerned about Conor’s weight, and she consistently loses her patience with Marley. John begins covering up for Marley to avoid Jenny’s wrath, staying up late into the night to repair the damage Marley causes throughout the house.
John arrives home one evening to find Jenny sobbing hysterically and hitting Marley with her fists. Marley has destroyed the couch, and John steps in to save him from Jenny’s blows. He looks Jenny in the eye and doesn’t recognize her expression or her tone when she calmly demands that Marley be taken away. She gives John an ultimatum to find a new home for Marley, otherwise she will.
John hopes that Jenny doesn’t mean it when she says she wants Marley gone, but Jenny insists that she’s serious. John asks about potential new owners, but he discovers that “Marley’s reputation preceded him” and nobody is willing to take him (141). Through his efforts to find Marley a new home, John discovers the magnitude of Labradors in need of new homes. The dogs in the newspaper ads are described in terms John and Jenny use to describe Marley. John decides he can’t give up on Marley, but he doesn’t want to risk crossing his emotionally volatile wife, so he takes Marley back to obedience school. This time, Marley graduates successfully and promptly eats his new diploma. Jenny recovers from her postpartum depression and is affectionate and patient toward Marley again. John is relieved to have Jenny back to herself.
Chapters 11-15 Analysis
The Grogans are now solidly in their family-building years. They learn from the mistakes of their first pregnancy and are more hesitant about sharing their news this time around. The health and success of this pregnancy parallels Marley’s progress in obedience training; the Grogans have learned from their past mistakes and are adjusting their behavior and approach to both pregnancy and dog-rearing.
The scene in the “indigent ward” highlights the socioeconomic disparities in the Palm Beach area at the time. Migrant workers and people of color are briefly brought to the forefront of the narrative as John bonds with fellow fathers-to-be in their shared experience. Disparities in access to health care are emphasized when two women in the same maternity ward are given different access to painkillers based on their ability to pay. John mentions surface-level disparities between neighborhoods, such as the posh neighborhood which is contrasted against the neighborhood composed of convenience marts and outdoor laundromats, but this is the only time his narrative examines the experience of people from another socioeconomic class. Even then, the experience is short-lived—John and Jenny retreat to their private labor suite as soon as it’s available.
The Grogans fall into a somewhat easy parental routine with Patrick, which encourages them to have another baby sooner rather than later. The next pregnancy is different, though, and Jenny’s period of bedrest and postpartum depression strains the family. John sees that Jenny is struggling but is afraid of her volatile temper and decides to help by keeping Marley out of her way. Trying to find a new home for Marley also brings John to realize how much he wants to keep him. John and Marley emerge from Jenny’s depressive episode with a stronger bond.
