Who Moved My Cheese?

Cheese is what both the humans and the mice search for in the Maze. Cheese comes in two types. For the mice, it’s “the hard nibbling cheese they liked” (26). For humans, Cheese is always capitalized, and it’s “a metaphor for what we want to have in life, whether it is a job, a relationship, money, a big house, freedom, health, recognition, spiritual peace or even an activity like jogging or golf” (14). Both mice and humans at first search for and find their respective types of cheese, and both groups are happy. When their cheese disappears, the mice immediately search deeper in the Maze for more, while the humans spend days in shock, blaming other people for their loss, and refusing at first to face their fears and explore the Maze for more of their type of Cheese.

The first place in the Maze where both mice and humans find cheese is at Cheese Station C. There, they all enjoy their respective types of cheese, though the mice remain alert to changes at the station while the humans grow complacent. One day, the cheese there disappears for both groups—basically, it runs out—and the mice leave at once to find new cheese elsewhere, while the humans linger, wishing their Cheese hadn’t disappeared, searching for someone to blame, and fearing the future.