Characteristics Of Heroes in 'Who Moved My Cheese ?'

Categories: Short Story

"Who Moved My Cheese" is a story of four characters in a maze. Two are mice and two are "little people." The mice and the little people have to find their way through the maze to the cheese. The maze represents the world around us our jobs, home, our church, our community. The cheese represents our goals, needs, wants, and desires of life. The moral of the story entails change and how we will face difficulty in life when we choose to rebel against change.

This story shows us how life can be both simple yet complicated all in one. Each character reacts differently in the story, which can be related to the emotional states in our lives as we adapt or do not adapt to change. The cheese is the one item in their lives that will make them happy. In our lives, we are always after that next big thing a new car, new house, new job, family, you name it.

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This cheese is a symbol of what we seek in life that will bring us happiness, even if only for a split second. We, as humans, get into a redundancy in life this routine makes us comfortable in our lives and we fear any changes that take place. These changes are uncertainties that we face, which makes it difficult to adapt to and trust change. We want to know what to expect and anticipate with life, however that is not always the case. Snuff is the individual who wants to see and react to change before it takes place.

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Change is inevitable in everyone's lives. To know that it's coming, it better prepared those of us like Snuff who want to expect the unknown and have an idea of what the unknown will be.

Scurry is the a person who reacts to the potential change in life once it gets here. Hem worries that the change will result in failure of something or a negative reaction in life. Hem does not want the change to occur he wants life to remain as is, change free. Haw, at first, is apprehensive of the change, but then soon realizes how much better his life will be once he makes the switch. I can relate to Snuff in a lot of ways due to the fact that I am a single mother. I fear my future and my children's futures. I worry as a mother that I am teaching them right from wrong. I fear that something may happen to me and worry what would happen to my children as a result. I am also like Hem and Haw in several ways. I fear the unknown being a parent by myself. It was easier when I worked as a team to be parents of three children. It is difficult to want change as a single parent, scared of making the wrong decision that will not only affect me as a parent but my three children as well. Sniff would be a great asset to a company, because he could constantly check out other companies to know how to keep the company abreast of the economic and technological changes in the workforce. He could aid in helping the company compete with other companies and markets. Hem would have to resign or be laid off from his position if he continued to resist the changes the company took. Hem would be detrimental to the company and its employees if he continued to want everything to remain as is. Haw would eventually become a coattail rider like the other employees once he saw the need for the change and the positives that would result from the new venture. Scurry would then be the employee that would lead the company with any new changes that snuff brought back.

However, these individuals would need guidance and support to stay on track with the new vision. Once the new changes were developed and implemented, scurry would expect and want to be rewarded for his efforts.The cheese represents the goals, dreams, aspirations, wants, needs, and desires in our lives. The cheese keeps moving because the things we desire in our lives are ever changing. We must accept this change and continue to go after what we desire in life. Everyone will encounter success and failure throughout life. Through the trials and tribulations of life, one must always be aware of their surroundings that are constantly changing. The maze represents the community in which one lives, their work, their home. The maze could also be seen as the dark unknown points in life and once you get past those, there will be light and good in life.This is the place in which you life your life and go after your dreams and goals. In life, we all have different wants, needs, goals, dreams, aspirations, and desires. We are all racing for different things. In the end, no matter what is at our finish line, in the middle is an unknown path of change and fear.

According to Conner, people do not have to like change to adapt to it, they just form new goals and expectations based upon the new conditions. In order to change, people must be mentally, physically, and emotionally ready to changes in life. Overall, change is inevitable in life no matter the situation or who it involves. Getting used to change is required by all in order to be successful. According to Kotter, employees should find the common concerns of changes in the workplace and address these changes to help ease the anxiety. By going out and not resisting change in life, we can truly seek out and find our life's goals and desires. Kanter discusses that if people feel blindfolded during a transition, they will be resistant and apprehensive to the change.The employer must lead the employee every step of the way through the changes being made.

Works cited

  1. Johnson, S. (1998). Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.
  2. Johnson, S. (2000). Who Moved My Cheese? for Teens: An A-Mazing Way to Change and Win! New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers.
  3. Conner, D. R. (1993). Managing at the Speed of Change: How Resilient Managers Succeed and Prosper Where Others Fail. New York: Villard Books.
  4. Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.
  5. Kanter, R. M. (2012). The Change Masters: Innovations for Productivity in the American Corporation. New York: Simon & Schuster.
  6. Burke, W. W. (2002). Organization Change: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
  7. Ford, J. D., & Ford, L. W. (2009). Decoding Resistance to Change. Harvard Business Review, 87(4), 99-103.
  8. Weick, K. E., & Quinn, R. E. (1999). Organizational Change and Development. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 361-386.
  9. Dijk, J., & Wilde, B. (2012). Who Moved My Cheese? The Role of Resilience and Motivation in Coping with Change. Journal of Change Management, 12(1), 95-110.
  10. Robbins, S. P., Coulter, M., & DeCenzo, D. A. (2019). Fundamentals of Management. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Updated: Feb 02, 2024
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Characteristics Of Heroes in 'Who Moved My Cheese ?'. (2024, Feb 07). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/characteristics-of-heroes-in-who-moved-my-cheese-essay

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