Marley and Me, Week 3, Post A

VOCAB
Bonhomie (109)- Good-natured manner

Slovenly (126)- Untidy

APPEALS
“The victim was chosen at random, and the attacker was a stranger who snuck into her house while she was in the backyard hanging her laundry on a Saturday afternoon” (115). This is an emotional appeal because it conveys a sense of helplessness and sympathy within the reader since the victim was so innocent. The sentence before explains that the victim was “an elderly woman who lived alone” which makes the crime even more heinous.

“We had shared something that night on the pavement-one of those brief, fleeting moments of clarity that define all the others in a life-that neither of us would soon forget” (122). This is an emotional appeal because it makes the reader feel the strong connection Lisa and John shared, after Lisa was stabbed.

“At twenty-one weeks a fetus can fit in the palm of a hand. It weighs less than a pound” (124). This is definitely a logical appeal-it’s a cut and dry, basic fact. I suppose that the author wanted to convey just how small and helpless his son would have been if he had been born this early, so it could also be interpreted as an emotional appeal.

QUOTE
“I was emotional anyway as I held this young girl, wondering if she was dying in my arms. The sight of Marley so uncharacteristically guarding us like that, so majestically fierce, brought tears to my eyes. Man’s best friend? Damn straight he was” (119).
I really liked how simply the author wrote this quote. The word choice he used made it easy for the reader to focus on the situation that had taken place. Also, it shows how devoted Marley was to John, even in a time of crisis.

THEME
A major theme emerging in this book is that life is precious so it shouldn’t be taken away. So far, two elderly women have been murdered, a teenage girl stabbed, and a baby that was almost born at 21 weeks. These incidents have caused the author to become more aware of life’s joys.