Of Mice and Men

So deciding to go through the Senior Class Book Recommendations was a good idea. Choosing to first read the shortest book on the list was ... maybe not the best idea. (I might add, it's one of those books you try to hide under a napkin when you run into three people you know at a coffee shop.)

I forget which of my peers in that "community of scholars" recommended Who Moved My Cheese?. Basically, it's one of those inspirational guides for corporate managers, about learning to roll with the punches. And it doesn't even attempt to hide the metaphors! Two mice, Sniff and Scurry, adapt to Change (ever with a capital C!) quickly when someone moves the Cheese (again with the proper nouns) in their little maze. Two "littlepeople," however, named Hem and Haw, plan their lives around the Cheese never leaving, and are not equipped to cope when their Cheese is moved. Haw decides to leave his comfort zone and go off in search of new Cheese. Whenever he learns a lesson, he writes in on the walls of the maze in case Hem decides to follow. In the end, of course, he learns how to deal with Change and finds new Cheese.

Next time, I won't opt for the 40-page huge-font book. =)

What would be fun, though, is to apply a Marxist analysis to the whole situation! Are Sniff and Scurry the ever-trampled proletariat, and Hem and Haw the comfortable bourgeoisie? Why can't the mice and littlepeople unite to destroy the maze and explore the bigger world outside? Don't they wonder where the Cheese is coming from and why it's being moved? Shouldn't they try to own the means of production? Or even a postmodern slant would be fun --- how do they know the maze or the Cheese is "real"?

Too much fun with managerial morality tales!