Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson
Who Moved My Cheese focuses on change. The story begins with the characters: Angela, Nathan, Carlos, and Jessica, and Michael who are old school friends who gather to reminisce about the different paths their lives have taken. The group all talks about how their lives have ended up completely unlike how they had expected. Michael offers his take on the theme of change and decides to share a story.
The story centers around two mice, Sniff and Scurry, and two "little people", Hem and Haw. The author utilizes a play on words when selecting the names of the characters. There is significance to the names Hem and Haw which is shown later by the little people's whiney and complaining nature early
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They were comfortable, they even admitting to being afraid of what the other obstacles and hardships the rest of the unexplored parts of the maze would bring. Haw realized that what you are afraid of is never as bad as what you imagine. "The fear you let build up in your mind is worse than the situation that actually exists. He'd never been so afraid of never finding new cheese that he didn't even want to start looking." Taking that first step created a new outlook from Haw, "Since starting his journey, he had found enough cheese in the corridors to keep him going. Now he looked forward to finding more. Just looking ahead was becoming exciting." "Now he realized it was natural for change to continually occur, whether you expect it or not. Change could surprise you only if you didn't expect it and weren't looking for it." Furthermore, any new cheese that Haw found was even more satisfying by the fact that it was obtained by genuine hard work and ingenuity. Haw left a trail of crumbs for Hem to follow along with inspirational messages on the wall. At one point he even thought about going back to get Hem, but realized that he had already tried to convince Hem, it was up to Hem to discover for himself how to push himself past his comforts and fears.
The author, Spencer Johnson, uses the maze as a tool to convey the ways we handle change in our lives. Many times we face the same dead ends and long daunting
I most identify with Hem and Haw, they are two little people. They are happy at first doing what comes naturally and eating what is in front of them. As time goes on the cheese begins to lessen and they eventually have no cheese, but they wait to see if more cheese will appear. When no cheese appears they eventually go out into the maze looking for more but are afraid to venture to far from the place the original cheese was. I feel I most identify wit Hem and Haw because they are afraid
John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men follows the journey of two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, who struggle through the navigation of working on a ranch in California and fulfilling their dreams together during a time of financial depression. The novel begins with George and Lennie traveling through the California wilderness to get to a new ranch just south of Soledad where they are going to begin new work. They had to leave their previous jobs in a town called Weed because Lennie had caused trouble with a girl by holding on to her red dress because he wanted to feel it, and this incident spiraled into rape allegations against Lennie. As George and Lennie make their way to the new ranch, Lennie; who is a large, but simple minded man; found a dead mouse and wanted to keep it to pet because he likes soft things. George, who is more serious and protects Lennie, takes the mouse away from him because even though it’s dead, he should not be messing with it. Lennie often does not realize his strength because of his mental incapabilities and as a result, he causes a lot of trouble and harm. George finds taking care of Lennie to be taxing, but he knows that their friendship is an important bond that he does not want to be without. In order to comfort Lennie in the wilderness, George tells the story of their shared dream to own their own ranch where they can follow their own rules and live as they please. When they finally arrive at the ranch the next day, George and Lennie
The story Mice and Men is about two men named George and Lennie. They go through rough times together and always keep each other out of trouble, but make trouble together at the same time. They find work at a ranch where they meet new characters and situations.
Carlo Ginzburg’s The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller explores the trials of supposed heretic Domenico Scandella. Better known as Menocchio, The Cheese and the Worms details his extensive beliefs about mistruths in religion and is written as a micro history of the events of his trial. At a time when religion and God were thought of as pure fact, Menocchio doubted their supreme existence and this lead to his death by burning. When reviewing Ginzburg’s account of the trials, the sources of his many ideas come to light and these ideas show that the Catholic Church and its members were scared the most by Menocchio’s ideas about the origins of earth.
The 16th century was a time of creativity, discovery, exploration, and invention. The Cheese and the Worms, written by Carlo Ginzburg, tells the story of Domenico Scandella. The book explores Scandella’s, otherwise known as Menocchio, world-view at the time. Menocchio was a miller who was tried for his unorthodox religious views and eventually burnt at the stake for heresy in 1599. During this time, Menocchio was seen as special as he was a peasant who could read, a peasant who had an education. Ginsburg’s display of Menocchio’s views gives the reader an insight into peasant culture. The peasant culture experienced many grievances as they suffered in their daily lives with little opportunity for survival. Their only opportunity of survival was working for landlords on the land. Peasants had little to no money and it did not help that they were being controlled by the church. The people were unaware that history was occurring but the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, the Inquisition, and other historical moments during the time were all relevant to the typical European peasant Menocchio as most of his ideas were caught in the currents of the 16th century.
Life is more than just a walk in the park, we are not always that lucky. Throughout one persons life there are always ups and downs, but what really make a person are the actions we take when we encounter obstacles. Life is an obstacle course in which we have to overcome in our lifetimes. In A Worn Path an older woman by the name of Phoenix Jackson takes a long road full of hardships to achieve a goal, which is to get medicine for her grandson. Not only does Phoenix of A Worn Path represent struggle but how we overcome this struggle to achieve a sense of achievement or a goal. Throughout time, people have been going through life’s obstacles and their willingness to
The paths taken in each person’s lifetime can associate with any factor or situation that one may come across. For example, one could come across a path that stands for tradition and the effect of traditional beliefs on a society like the one represented in “Dead Man’s Path.” Another example could be a path that stands for the power of love and the effect of unselfishness that makes one continue with life like the one represented in “A Worn Path.” An additional example could be a path that stands for overcoming doubts of beliefs as these may uphold or tear one apart like the path represented in “Young Goodman Brown.” No path is easier than another and they all hold a spectacular significance in each person’s life. Therefore, in this independent
Jessie and Bluebell: Two dogs who gives birth to nine puppies in the beginning of the book.
Of Mice and Men, a novella written by John Steinbeck, is the story of two migrant workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, who dream of owning their own farm. The two men secure jobs at a ranch and soon meet a swamper named Candy and Curley’s wife. Like George and Lennie, these characters also dream of having a better life than what they can accomplish while
The book Of Mice and Men was a great, exciting book. The author, John Steinbeck, used foreshadowing to give hints to many big events that come up in his book. The two main characters in the book, George and Lennie, travel together to different ranches to earn money. Lennie is a big bulky adult who acts like a child most of the time. When Lennie’s Aunt Clara, who took care of him died, George told her that he would take her of him. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing by using an allusion to the poem To a Mouse, creating Lennie’s obsession with petting soft things, and creating the idea of the American dream.
“The Mouse” is a short story written by H.H Munro. The main characters are Theodoric, the mouse, and the blind lady. The author Munro writes the story in third person and uses an omniscient view. The setting of the story takes part in the vicarage, the stable, and the ends in train compartment. The tone used by the author to engage his readers is an exciting, thrilling fast paced tone that bring the characters to life. To strengthen the thrilling exciting tone, the author uses phrases such as: “he was not even alone in his own clothes. “A warm, creeping movement over his flesh betrayed the unwelcome and highly resented presence, unseen but poignant, of a strayed mouse.” After reading the quote above, I as the reader was drawn into the
Haw overcame his fear of change and moved into the maze searching for new cheese" As he started running down the dark corridor he began to smile haw didn't realize it yet but he was discovering what nourished his soul. He was letting go and trusting what lay ahead for him, even though
The book “Who Moved My Cheese?” is a simple story about mice and “little people” that helps readers handle and deal with changes in their lives. The story is about two mice and two human-like individuals named “little people” (who are the size of the mice). The two mice’s names are Scurry and Sniff. The two little people’s names are Hem and Haw. The story takes place in a “maze” and the characters look for “cheese” to nourish them in the maze. When the characters find cheese, only to have it disappear, they experience change. The different characters show different ways of responding to this change and teach lessons that can be applied to our daily lives.
The rise of literacy towards the end of the Middle Ages brought with it a torrent of individuals ready to think fro themselves and formulate their own theories and ideas regarding God and the Christian faith. For a long time, the church held a near monopoly on literacy and used this to maintain control over people’s lives and beliefs. While some of these new intellectuals created ideas that would forever change the way people envision themselves and their relation to God and the universe, some simply patched together tidbits of ideas that were not born out of deep philosophical inquiry, but had more of an instinctive type of logical grounding. This was the line of thinking that made up Domenico
Hemmingway’s story is written in an objective or dramatic point of view. The story is told primarily through dialogue. The narrator has emotionally distanced himself from the characters, and the true feelings and opinions of the characters are revealed in little clues as the story progresses. The narrator acts solely as a reporter of the chain of events