I had read this book sometime back and completely forgotten about it. Cousin2’s recent review of the book reminded me of it again and as is it is my usual practice I will turn it completely on its head and put my own spin on it!
I assume that everyone must be aware of the plot. In brief, it is about 2 little men and 2 mice that are after cheese in a maze. The cheese in the maze is obviously not abundant and gets lesser and lesser with every passing day. The story is about the difference between men and mice in the way they deal with the loss of the cheese. The moral of the story supposedly, is that change is a part of life and in order to survive it is necessary to be constantly on high alert and be innovative enough to deal with it.
For a more detailed account of the plot, read her review at: https://mouthshut.com/readreview.php?rid=20861&r=1
This small, less than 100-page book has become highly popular, the reason for that being, I presume is because everyone easily identifies with the principal characters of the book.
And why do we so easily identify with the characters of the book? Because they happen to be either small men or mice!
Welcome to life in 21st century, where human beings have been reduced to either helpless, insignificant men or mice.
The two tiny mice – Sniff and Scurry are the creatures to be admired, as unlike men they are not lazy and constantly on a move. They are sharp, perceptive and always have their running shoes ready.
But what the hell? – they are still mice or rats. They don’t think, they don’t question, they don’t understand. All they have is a sharp nose for cheese and quick feet needed to find it. (If anyone is wondering where do I put myself in the picture – I would rather be the owner of the maze and all its cheese and if that is not possible, be a bird who gets a bird’s eye view of the maze from above and swoops upon the cheese, before either mice or men could locate it!)
But on a more serious note, the book is symbolic of the tragedy of modern life. We live in a world in which we have little control over our lives. The world appears like a confusing maze; we see tall walls around us and spend our entire lives running around them, trying to find our cheese.
It is interesting to note that the neither the mice nor men ask simple basic questions like – where does the cheese come from? Who is the producer of the cheese? What lies behind the maze? Is it possible to get out of the maze and explore the world outside? They simply accept that their lot is only to find the cheese.
The parallels between the maze and our life is not just limited to office-work situation, but to the entire life itself. Like these four characters who cannot see beyond the maze, we cannot see beyond the material world. The cheese is symbolic for money that is in short supply and in control of the creators of the maze-like world, who make us run and slave for it. We, average humans have left the job of producing cheese in the hands of few powerful elites, who control and manipulate us, while we are completely at their mercy for even our basic necessities
Rat-race is the word that we use so often to describe modern fast-paced life. That is what it no-doubt is, and rats are what all of us have become.
Isn’t it strange that in the animal world, while we admire and love creatures like birds, butterflies and dolphins, we imitate the lifestyles of ants, bees and rats. Like ants we carry huge loads on our back, loads much bigger than our own weight; like honey bees we have a system of hierarchies, the kings and the queens, and the workers who slave for the royalty; and like rats we keep running throughout our lives to find cheese.
Humans are spiritual beings, capable of divinity. We are not reactive creatures, but a creative race whose goal should be to create heaven on earth and not run like mice or slave like ants.
This book, while I believe it was written innocently (although I am not sure), is quite insidious as it attempts in a subtle manner to make people more accepting of an instable and chaotic life, by shifting the blame back to the people themselves. The book says – that if you are left behind, unable to cope with conditions, you have no one to blame but yourself.
By making people accept life as it is, changing with the conditions, instead of changing the conditions that create such conditions, this book seeks to prevent them from revolting and from asking the big question “Why can’t I make my own cheese?”