The Little Prince - Point Of

View Analysis

By : Lyn Gella

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery is a beautiful short

story that can really catch a reader’s attention, especially of the young ones

because it is made beautifully by the author. It is about the little prince and

his pilot friend. Also, this includes other minor characters that the little

prince had met during his journey.

Analyzing the point of view of the story, you can say that “The Little

Prince” uses a first person point of view. The story starts that the narrator

tells the readers about his past experiences.

The narrator is the one narrating the story, and in the story, he is the

pilot. He uses the first person “I’. In this case, the story is a homodiegetic

narrative where actions and events are relayed through a first person

‘participating’ narrator. The narrator is the one who is internal to the

narrative. The narrator tells the readers what happens and also what he

thinks. Let’s take this passage as evidence: “Then I would never talk to that

person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring

myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and

politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have

met such a sensible man.”

The narrator tells the readers the things he will do. He is talking to

the little prince; therefore, his thought is for the prince.In addition to, the

narrator uses deontic modality which expresses his desire and obligation. It

can be seen in the same passage that I provided above. To give further

passage which will strongly prove that it uses deontic modality, let’s take

this passage “I shall certainly try to make my portraits as true to life as

possible.” Since the narrator is talking to the little prince, he needs to let

the prince understand him by making his portraits as true to life.

The narrator is the one telling the story to the readers, but then, the

story evolves to the little prince. His adventures are more than the narrator.

The narrator only inserts his story like when his plane was broken and met

the prince. As you can notice, the things that the little prince tells to the

narrator, the narrator also conveys it to the readers. It is just sometimes

confusing because the narrator uses the second person “you”. In suchtimes

he is talking to the reader, and sometimes to the prince. Like in “I answered

you with the first thing that came into my head. Don't you see--I am very

busy with matters of consequence!” In this passage, the author is talking to

the prince. In the passage “Here, then, is a great mystery. For you who also

love the little prince, and for me, nothing in the universe can be the same if

somewhere, we do not know where, a sheep that we never saw has--yes or

no?--eaten a rose . . .”,the narrator talks to the readers. So, it is now clear.

The story ends when the little prince and the narrator got separated

when the little prince was bitten by the snake in his ankle. He suddenly fell

down, and was gone. The author only hopes that his friend goes back to his

planet, and he’s happy. Although he misses him, he’s happy for his friend.