Marley and Me Teaches Lessons

Jennifer Aniston & Owen Wilson in Powerful Movie for all Dog Lovers

Dec 31, 2008

Take the opportunity to see Marley & Me to be entertained, inspired, and maybe learn a thing or two about life.

Movies are a great tool to teach lessons to children, teenagers, and adults. Use movies as a parent, educator, friend, or curious individual to challenge yourself to learn and grow in new ways. Marley and Me is a funny, memorable, and heart-wrenching movie that leaves most with a few tears and a few lessons about life.

What is Marley and Me About?

Sparing all the details readers can find in the book and audiences will see in the movie, Marley and Me is simply about a couple who adopts an unruly but lovable dog. Marley, “the world’s worst dog,” is uncontrollable as he runs away, chews everything, knocks people down, and drags various people and items around in jolting ways. When the couple decides to add children to their family, life gets even more chaotic and interesting. Marley is the family member who brings joy, hilarity, frustration, and excitement to a fairly typical family. Marley’s life and death (spoiler alert!) teach many life lessons to both his family and the audience.

Movies are a great tool for education, whether using documentaries to teach facts or using a movie like Marley and Me for character education. The following lessons can be drawn from Marley and Me:

It’s important for families, couples, and single people to really grasp that bringing a pet into the family should be permanent. People abandon pets for many reasons: expense, time, bad behavior, personality differences, moving, etc. Before becoming a pet-owner, be ready to commit and accept the animal as a permanent member of the family, for better or worse.

Unconditional Love for Pets

In Western cultures especially, having a pet means having someone who gives unconditional love. Even when pets are treated poorly, most are quick to forgive. Marley and Me shows how giving unconditional love to pets is a great way to add joy to anyone’s life. And yes, unconditional love means loving a pet who makes life difficult sometimes.

Balancing Marriage, Family, & Career

Many couples have had the thought, “Oh, it can’t be that difficult. They’re just not doing it right,” when hearing other couples complain about the challenges of balancing marriage, family, and career. Marley and Me really encourages people to pay attention to the very real and frustrating balancing act of supporting a family.

Not necessarily appropriate for all children, Marley and Me is a great movie to watch to really talk about death. It’s incredibly sad and may be too difficult to watch for some children (and adults), but for people who haven’t experienced much death, this movie will provide a very obvious opportunity to talk about it.

It can be hard to figure out what your dream is, and it can be very discouraging to discover that life has a different path. Marley and Me is a great story about a man trying to find his way in life. How does one work through fears of settling? How do people learn to be content with the unexpected journeys in life? Marley and Me shows a man who struggles to find answers to those questions and serves as a great lesson for young graduates and adults in mid-life crisis.

The best way to get the most out of a movie is to have a compelling discussion afterwards. Use the above topics and lessons to get a conversation started. Train yourself and others to take something valuable away from watching movies. Not just simple entertainment, movies provide opportunities to learn and grow.

The copyright of the article Marley and Me Teaches Lessons in Romantic Comedy Films is owned by Angela Wilson. Permission to republish Marley and Me Teaches Lessons in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.