Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson

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Introduction "Who Moved My Cheese?" tells a story of change, of how we react to it, and the trouble we can find ourselves in when we don't follow that change. The story is about four characters, two mice, and two "little people." The characters live in a maze chasing cheese. The cheese represents anything we chase after in life and believe it will make us happy. The story details the trials and troubles we all have in daily lives. Book Summary Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson, is a parable that shows how individuals deal with change differently. In this story the four characters, two mice named Sniff and Scurry and two little people, about the size of mice, named Hem and Haw. These four are in a maze searching for cheese; the cheese is a metaphor for the things that make feel complete. The maze represents the environment such as the earth, employment, home, family, or whatever is associated with the change. Change is the key variable in this story. The change happens when Sniff, Scurry, Hem and Haw, show up to their cheese station and find that the cheese has been moved. This particular cheese station was once abundant with cheese now it empty. Each of the four reacts a differently to this predicament, some successful than the others. Sniff and Scurry were prepared for change, they have seen it coming, showed very little resistance to change and immediately move on in search of new cheese. The two little people, that were content in their lives, did not notice the cheese supply running low and were not prepared for change. Haw spent a great deal of time analyzing the change before taking action while Hem shut everything out, at one point put his hands over his eyes and ears to drown everything else out he preten... ... middle of paper ... ...ny one individual. You might ask three people what their personal definition of change is and receive three different answers. Some people offer very little resistance to change, they consider it the spice of life; it prevents stagnancy and maintains excitement through diversity. Some people view change like the U.S. viewed Russia during the cold war, as an inevitable threat that we must constantly monitor and prepare for. Other people react to change like an ostrich reacts to danger. They just stick their head in a hole and pretend it doesn't exist. Change is constantly happening all the time to everyone in someway or another. Whether or not change is accepted does not alter the fact that it exists however the way you accept change can alter the way you exist. . Works Cited Johnson M.D., Spencer. Who Moved My Cheese? New York: G.P. Putman's Sons, 1998

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