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 22-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 22 Summary: “In the Land of Pencils”
The Grogans’ Pennsylvania home is on two acres of steep hillside with a meadow and a creek. Marley and the children love their new setting, although John feels slightly lonely in the comparatively isolated location. He connects with their new neighbor Digger, a local man who offers kind advice. The family hopes for a white Christmas during their first Pennsylvania winter, but the first snow of the season doesn’t arrive until after the new year. Marley enjoys his first snow day with the kids, and John takes Marley on a wild toboggan ride through the woods, commenting on the way home that he’s “getting too old for this stuff” and alluding that Marley’s advancing age will become increasingly obvious in the months ahead (224).
Marley is now an elderly dog at nine years old. John notices that Marley is slowing down during that first winter in Pennsylvania. Marley still has bursts of energy but prefers to snooze. He no longer has boundless energy on walks. After a particularly difficult walk, John observes that “without us quite realizing it, our eternal puppy had become a senior citizen” (225). Marley’s energy is diminishing, but he is still a rascal and continues stealing food from dinner plates, rummaging trash cans, drinking from the bathtub, and generally destroying the house. John justifies the cost of the repairs: “We could have bought a small yacht with what we spent on our dog and all the things he destroyed. Then again, how many yachts wait by the door all day for your return?” (226). John also reflects on the larger lessons he’s learning from his aging dog, such as enjoying a walk for the sake of walking rather than for the destination.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Poultry on Parade”
Working for Organic Gardening inspires John to add poultry to his garden. John is warned not to let his kids name the chickens, otherwise the animals will become like pets. Before John can intervene, Jenny and the children each name a chicken. Three of the chickens turn out to be male, though, and the potential for competition among multiple roosters pushes the Grogans to trade two of their males for hens. Marley doesn’t notice the crowing of the roosters in the mornings, though; his hearing is declining. Marley is still very much himself, and John allows Marley’s deafness as an excuse for his disobedience. John reflects on Marley’s health over the years, namely his insatiable appetite and recurring ear infections. John knew this time would come, but he’s sad to see Marley getting old.
Chapter 24 Summary: “The Potty Room”
John and Jenny can no longer deny that Marley is old. They worry about his increasing infirmity, especially since he can no longer hear them calling to him. One night Marley disappears while outside relieving himself. John and Jenny search for him, calling his name in the rain only to find him waiting for them back at home. Marley is also losing his sight, his fur is falling out, and arthritis impacts his mobility. John helps Marley up the stairs regularly, although Marley can and does make the laborious trek when left alone downstairs.
Watching Marley age brings John to reflect on life’s brevity. John grows dissatisfied with his editing job at the gardening magazine and applies for a columnist opening at the Philadelphia Inquirer. The new job requires a longer commute, but the family does not need to relocate. John feels more like himself now that he’s working for a newspaper again.
The first snow of the year brings the challenge of Marley relieving himself in icy conditions with arthritic hips. John attempts to clear a “potty room” for Marley to easily relieve himself near the house, but Marley insists on continuing his habit of pacing the entire yard despite his failing hips. Marley slips in the snow after relieving himself one day, and John resorts to pulling him home on a toboggan. This method works, but John recognizes they can’t continue like this much longer. He wonders at what point Marley’s difficult moments will outstrip his happy moments.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Beating the Odds”
Jenny and the kids visit Boston, and John stays home to work. Marley is not healthy or mobile enough to be left alone all day while John commutes to and from work, so John boards Marley at a kennel for the duration of Jenny’s trip. John plans to take advantage of the time to himself by getting ahead at work and exploring the area around his Philadelphia office for writing inspiration. His plans are dashed when the kennel calls to inform him that Marley needs an emergency procedure to untwist his stomach. The vet treats Marley without resorting to surgery, but Marley faces increased odds of his stomach twisting again in the future. John must confront that surgery is cruel for a dog Marley’s age, which brings him to the greater realization that the next medical emergency could be Marley’s last.
Marley returns from his brush with death with strict feeding limitations. John realizes that Marley’s puppyhood, youth, and even middle age are far behind him; he’ll “never again gulp a huge meal in one sitting, or slurp unlimited amounts of water. His days of playing submarine with his snout in the water bowl were over” (255). On Marley’s first night back home, John spreads out a sleeping bag and sleeps next to Marley on the family room floor. He strokes Marley’s fur and cleans the mucus from the corner of Marley’s eyes as he reflects on Marley’s life—his puppyhood and adolescence, the never-ending list of destruction, the cheek-to-jowl dances with Jenny. John is content to fall asleep on the floor next to his dog, “just the two of us, Marley and me” (256).
Chapter 26 Summary: “Borrowed Time”
Marley appears to make a comeback after his brush with death, enabling John and Jenny to continue denying the inevitable end of their dog’s life. John acknowledges that part of them “wanted to believe he could chug on forever” (258). Despite the strict feeding orders, Marley still obtains household objects in his mouth on a daily basis, challenging John in a game of chase to retrieve them.
John comes to terms with Marley’s waning life when he visits a 9/11 crash site for a work assignment. As he sits alone at the memorial, he can “almost taste the finiteness of life and thus its preciousness” (260). As he considers “the colossus of human heartbreak that was Flight 93,” John admits he can “feel the sharp pang of the loss” that lies ahead (260). John accepts that the time to let Marley go is getting close.
Marley continues seeking John out throughout the house, even after falling down the stairs. Marley pees in the house, something he hasn’t done since his house-training days. He makes another comeback, though, and John decides “the day he sat still and let me pet him without trying to engage me would be the day I knew he had had enough” (264). John doesn’t want to make the decision to end Marley’s life, but he knows it’s coming soon.
Chapters 22-26 Analysis
Rural Pennsylvania is strikingly different from beachside Florida, but the Grogans adjust well to the quieter surroundings and abundance of nature and space. The slower-paced setting reflects Marley’s slower pace in life. Marley gets noticeably older with each chapter, and attention shifts more to concern over his health than concern over his behavior. His behavior is accepted at this point. Marley’s age creeps up on John while the Grogans are busy working through their family-building and midlife years. When John begins noticing Marley’s first steps toward decline, he’s at a place in his life where he’s ready to accept and reflect upon the lessons Marley has to offer him.
The chicken adoption recalls John and Jenny’s puppy excursion from early in the novel: They dive into caring for an animal without doing much preliminary research. They come up with a few reasonable justifications for choosing chickens, but Jenny seals the decision with her declaration that chickens pass the cuteness test (228). As with Marley, the Grogans base their decision on their own assumptions and the cute appeal of an animal, and again they end up with an unexpected version of the animal they intended to bring home—three roosters instead of hens. This time, though, they act to reverse their error and exchange the unwanted animals. Their love for the chickens is nothing like their love for Marley, so they’re easily able to exchange the unwanted roosters for the more desirable hens. Marley is a member of the family, but the chickens are no more than poultry, despite being named like pets.
Marley’s health declines gradually—his hearing, his fur, his stomach, his joints, and his sight fade progressively rather than all at once. Each health issue is manageable on its own, but the collective effect of Marley’s declining health is undeniable. When John makes concessions like carrying Marley up the stairs now, he does so not to avoid potential destruction but to make his best friend’s final years more comfortable and enjoyable.
Marley’s close calls with death and his repeated comebacks prepare John for the difficult decision he must make to end Marley’s life. This is a period of deep reflection for John, as he contemplates aging, companionship, and loyalty. The extensive reflections on lessons learned from Marley’s life prepare readers for his inevitable death. Just as John and Jenny go through multiple close calls, readers also experience the quick succession of suspense and falling action each time Marley makes a recovery.
