Who Moved My Cheese

The story starts with introduction of four characters in the story. There are two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two little people, Hem and Haw. As described in the line, “Sniff and Scurry have simple brains but good instincts, they use the simple method of trial and error”, the mice characters illustrate the simple parts of us. Meanwhile, the characters of Hem and Haw illustrate the complex parts of us. This was stated in the line, “Hem and Haw have complex brains with beliefs and emotions that made their lives in the maze more complicated and challenging”. Thus, the two mice acted immediately according to their guts while the two little people spend more time philosophizing about their journey inside the maze. The maze the four characters spent their day in is a representation of our environment. They can be the organization we work for, the relationships in our lives, or the community we live in.

The story of these characters revolves around the pursuit of cheese. Sniff and Scurry could care less about cheese. However, for Hem and Haw, having cheese means security, good health or materials. Living in a beautiful cottage with a loving family is the cheese dreamt by Haw. Whereas, for Hem, he dreamt of having the big cheese; owning a big mansion on top of a hill. Cheese is used in the story as a metaphor of what we want in life. They can be a dream home, a loving relationship, a good career, financial security, etc. In order to get cheese, these four characters spend their day racing in the maze to find cheese. One day, they discovered Cheese Station C with a large supply of cheese. Each morning, Sniff and Scurry will get up early to get to the cheese station. Whereas, Hem and Haw, get up late each morning and took a slow stroll to the cheese station. The discovery of the cheese station leads them to get to the same supply each day which somehow created a routine for them. Hem and Haw became adapted to this constant source and felt secure up to the point that