Media Diary Week 4

The Text that Changed My Life

One of the only pieces of media I can recall having a huge effect of my life would be the film ‘Marley & Me’. Before this film, I couldn’t understand how someone could get attached to an animal, as I hadn’t really had the experience of having a pet due to my brother’s allergies. However, the film made it look so easy to fall in love with an animal.

In the beginning of the film, I wasn’t convinced that anything that happened was going to change the way I thought of having a pet. The only experience I had of owning a pet was when I was younger and we had two cats, but they didn’t really enjoy my company and both ran away. So in my mind I believed that all animals that you could own as a pet had no effect on the way you live.

As the film went on, I could see how attached the actors got even though the puppy was destroying everything, they taught it how to behave properly and realised that it could fit into the family they wanted. Originally, the couple in the film adopted a dog due to the fact they couldn’t have children, so the dog would be their child. Once the woman found out she was pregnant, they had the discussion of whether they should keep the dog, and decided that they couldn’t get rid of him.

There was a very sad ending to the film, as the dog was ill and had to be put down, the father of the family was the one who stayed with Marley as it happened so that he wasn’t alone, even though I had never owned a dog or had any kind of friendship with any form of animal, it destroyed me emotionally, I was a complete wreck and couldn’t stop crying.

A couple of months later to the release of this film, my family adopted a kitten, who liked me more than she liked the rest of my family, and it was decided that she would be my cat. Apparently, the whole family had completely forgotten about my brother’s allergy to cats, as when they kicked in again, we realised we had a problem. Jake was given the option to decide whether we kept Roxy (the kitten) or took her back, but due to the fact me and Roxy had become so attached to each other, he said he could deal with it otherwise I may have never spoken to him ever again.

Once owning a pet and having this kind of relationship they did in the film, I watched it again to see if any of my views had changed and I cried before the end because I knew what was coming and couldn’t bring myself to watch it.

So in the end, this film ‘Marley & Me’ made me realise that animals aren’t just pets in the house, they can become family.