The Wikipedia Knowledge Dump (WikiDumper.org)

Mice are popular in fiction, usually as anthropomorphic funny animals. It is perhaps ironic that although they have been regarded by mankind as pests for ages, they are often featured as sympathetic in books and cartoons. Perhaps this may be because, due to their famously small size, they are considered the embodiment of "the little guy". Indeed, in many depictions, such as Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, humans are the enemy and mice are the protagonists.

In fiction, mice are popularly portrayed as loving cheese, but in reality most mice do not particularly like cheese, and prefer foods in their natural diet. Too much cheese may cause digestive problems and strong-smelling excrement. Cheese probably became linked to mice because its strong smell and sticky texture make it a good bait for mousetraps. Another common stereotype is that elephants are afraid of mice. This is also false; elephants, being large, are naturally unafraid of mice.

Flowers for Algernon tells the story of a mouse named Algernon that is given an experimental intelligence-boosting treatment, which only works temporarily, and ends up in the death of the mouse; the story is told by a man that is given the same treatment, though sometime after Algernon's treatment, such that as Algernon reverts from the high intelligence state, the speaker fears for his own fateful return and possible death. The Lion and the Mouse is one of Aesop's fables, with the moral "Little friends may prove great friends". This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mice in Fiction". This entry is a fragment of a larger work. Link may die if entry is finally removed or merged.