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Title
The Little Prince
Le Petit Prince
The Author BIOGRAPHY
Born: June 29, 1900Birthplace: Lyon, FranceDied: July 31, 1944(airplane
crash)Best Known As: Author of
The Little Prince• Antoine-Marie-Roger de
Saint-Exupéry was a French aviator. He survived the 1935 crash in the Sahara.
Antoine-Marie-Roger de Exupery
Country of Origin
FRANCELiberty, Equality, Fraternity
The French language is a romance dialect derived from Vulgar Latin and heavily influenced principally by Celtic and Frankish. Beginning in the 11th century, literature written in medieval French was one of the oldest vernacular (non-Latin) literatures in western Europe and it became a key source of literary themes in the Middle Ages across the continent.
PLOTThe narrator, an airplane pilot, crashes in the Sahara desert. The
crash badly damages his airplane and leaves the narrator with very little food or water. As he is worrying over his predicament, he is approached by the little prince, a very serious little blond boy who asks the narrator to draw him a sheep. The narrator obliges, and the two become friends. The pilot learns that the little prince comes from a small planet that the little prince calls Asteroid 325 but that people on Earth call Asteroid B-612. The little prince took great care of this planet, preventing any bad seeds from growing and making sure it was never overrun by baobab trees. One day, a mysterious rose sprouted on the planet and the little prince fell in love with it. But when he caught the rose in a lie one day, he decided that he could not trust her anymore. He grew lonely and decided to leave. Despite last-minute reconciliation with the rose, the prince set out to explore other planets and cure his loneliness.
While journeying, the narrator tells us, the little prince passes by neighboring asteroids and encounters for the first time the strange, narrow-minded world of grown-ups. On the first six planets the little prince visits, he meets a king, a vain man, a drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter, and a geographer, all of whom live alone and are overly consumed by their chosen occupations. Such strange behavior both amuses and perturbs the little prince. He does not understand their need to order people around, to be admired, and to own everything. With the exception of the lamplighter, whose dogged faithfulness he admires, the little prince does not think much of the adults he visits, and he does not learn anything useful. However, he learns from the geographer that flowers do not last forever, and he begins to miss the rose he has left behind.
At the geographer’s suggestion, the little prince visits Earth, but he lands in the middle of the desert and cannot find any humans. Instead, he meets a snake who speaks in riddles and hints darkly that its lethal poison can send the little prince back to the heavens if he so wishes. The little prince ignores the offer and continues his explorations, stopping to talk to a three-petaled flower and to climb the tallest mountain he can find, where he confuses the echo of his voice for conversation. Eventually, the little prince finds a rose garden, which surprises and depresses him—his rose had told him that she was the only one of her kind.
The prince befriends a fox, who teaches him that the important things in life are visible only to the heart that his time away from the rose makes the rose more special to him, and that love makes a person responsible for the beings that one loves. The little prince realizes that, even though there are many roses, his love for his rose makes her unique and that he is therefore responsible for her. Despite this revelation, he still feels very lonely because he is so far away from his rose. The prince ends his story by describing his encounters with two men, a railway switchman and a salesclerk.
It is now the narrator’s eighth day in the desert, and at the prince’s suggestion, they set off to find a well. The water feeds their hearts as much as their bodies, and the two share a moment of bliss as they agree that too many people do not see what is truly important in life. The little prince’s mind, however, is fixed on returning to his rose, and he begins making plans with the snake to head back to his planet. The narrator is able to fix his plane on the day before the one-year anniversary of the prince’s arrival on Earth, and he walks sadly with his friend out to the place the prince landed. The snake bites the prince, who falls noiselessly to the sand.
The narrator takes comfort when he cannot find the prince’s body the next day and is confident that the prince has returned to his asteroid. The narrator is also comforted by the stars, in which he now hears the tinkling of his friend’s laughter. Often, however, he grows sad and wonders if the sheep he drew has eaten the prince’s rose. The narrator concludes by showing his readers a drawing of the desert landscape and by asking us to stop for a while under the stars if we are ever in the area and to let the narrator know immediately if the little prince has returned.
CHARACTERS1. The Little Prince - One of the two
protagonists of the story. After leaving his home planet and his beloved rose, the prince journeys around the universe, ending up on Earth. Frequently perplexed by the behavior of grown-ups,
• The Narrator - A lonely pilot who, while stranded in the desert, befriends the little prince. They spend eight days together in the desert before the little prince returns to his home planet. Although he is discouraged from drawing early in his life because adults cannot understand his drawings, the narrator illustrates his own story and makes several drawings for the little prince.
3. The Rose - A coquettish flower who has trouble expressing her love for the little prince and consequently drives him away.
4. The Fox - Although the fox asks the little prince to tame him, the fox is in some ways the more knowledgeable of the two characters, and he helps steer the prince toward what is important in life.
5. The Snake - The first character the prince meets on Earth, who ultimately sends the prince back to the heavens by biting him.
6. The Baobabs - Baobabs, harmless trees on Earth, pose a great threat to smaller planets like the prince’s if left unchecked. They can squeeze whole planets to pieces with their roots.
• The King - On the first planet the little prince visits, he encounters a king who claims to rule the entire universe.
• The Drunkard - The drunkard is a sad figure, but he is also foolish because he drinks to forget that he is ashamed of drinking.
• The Businessman - Too busy even to greet his visitor, the businessman owns all the stars.
•The Vain Man - The sole resident of the second planet the little prince visits. The vain man is lonely and craves admiration from all who pass by..
• The Lamplighter - The fifth and most complex figure the prince encounters before landing on Earth. At first, the lamplighter appears to be yet another ridiculous character with no real purpose, but his selfless devotion to his orders earns him the little prince’s admiration. Of all the adults the little prince encounters before reaching Earth, the lamplighter is the only one the prince thinks he could befriend.
• The Geographer - The sixth and final character the little prince encounters before he lands on Earth. Although the geographer is apparently well-read, he refuses to learn about his own planet, saying it is a job for explorers. He recommends that the little prince visit Earth and his comments on the ephemeral nature of flowers reveal to the prince that his own flower will not last forever.
• The Railway Switchman - The railway switchman works at the hub for the enormous trains that rush back and forth carrying dissatisfied adults from one place to the other. He has more perspective on life than the unhappy, thoughtless passengers his trains ferry. He agrees with the prince that the children are the only ones who appreciate and enjoy the beauty of the train rides.
• The Salesclerk - The salesclerk sells pills that quench thirst on the grounds that people can save up to fifty-three minutes a day if they don’t have to stop to drink. He symbolizes the modern world’s misplaced emphasis on saving time and taking shortcuts.
• The Roses in the Rose Garden - The sight of the rose garden first leads the prince to believe that his flower is not, in fact, unique. However, with the fox’s guidance, the prince realizes that even so many similar flowers cannot stop his own rose from being unique.
• The Three-Petaled Flower - The three-petaled flower lives alone in the desert, watching the occasional caravan pass by. She mistakenly informs the prince that there are only a handful of men in the world and that their lack of roots means they are often blown along.
• The Little Prince’s Echo - The little prince’s echo is not really a character, but the little prince mistakes it for one. When he shouts from a mountaintop, he hears his echo and believes that Earth people simply repeat what is said to them.
• The Turkish Astronomer - The first human to discover the prince’s home, Asteroid B-612. When the Turkish astronomer first presents his discovery, no one believes him on account of his Turkish costume. Years later, he makes the same presentation wearing Western clothes, and his discovery is well received. The scientific community’s treatment of the Turkish astronomer reveals that ignorance propels xenophobia (a fear or hatred of foreigners) and racism.
• Chapter I Summary
• The story begins when the author is six-years-old. He draws a picture of a boa constrictor who has just swallowed an elephant.
• Chapter II Summary• The author, now a pilot, has an accident that lands him
in the middle of the Sahara Desert. He begins to work on his plane, in hope of fixing the engine before his supply of water runs out. He sleeps on the desert sand that night and when he awakens he hears a voice saying, "If you please--draw me a sheep!" The pilot tells the prince that he cannot draw, but the little prince says that doesn't matter. So the pilot shows the prince something he has drawn before: the boa constrictor from the outside, with the elephant not showing except as a bulge. The prince immediately recognizes it for exactly what it is and the pilot is encouraged. He then draws his best sheep and gives it to....
• Chapter III Summary• The pilot attempts to find out more about the little prince.
He asks questions but the boy does not answer most of them. He is clearly much more interested in his sheep and his own thoughts than in answering questions about himself. When the little prince mentions how nice it is that his sheep has a box to use for a house at night, the pilot offers to draw a rope for the prince to use to tie up the sheep. The prince is perplexed at this, having no idea why anybody would want to tie up a sheep. After a short discussion on the subject, the little prince informs the pilot there will be no need to tie up the sheep because there is no place for the sheep to wander off.....
• Chapter IV Summary• The pilot discusses some of the differences in
the way adults and children behave. He goes on to explain a bit more about the book he is writing and why he chose to write it. His purpose in writing the book is as much, he says, to remember the little prince as to write a book. He talks about having been discouraged from drawing when he was a child and reminds us that children understand what is important much better than adults do. He expresses his concern that he might be in....
• Chapter V Summary• This chapter provides the reader with some detail of life
on the small planet inhabited by the little prince. It seems that the sheep he is so keen on acquiring is meant to eat little baobab bushes. Baobabs, apparently, if left unattended, grow so large that they threaten to take over the little prince's entire planet. Therefore, the prince spends a great deal of time removing the small baobab bushes as soon as he finds them. It is a matter of discipline. As the little prince points out, "When you've finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care." The little.....
• Chapter VI Summary• The pilot discovers the prince's love of sunsets.
The little prince tells the pilot he can see the sunset as many times a day as he likes, because his planet is so small that by merely moving a chair a few feet, he can be on the other side of the small globe. One day, he tells the pilot he saw the sun set forty-four times. The prince also confesses he is.....
• Chapter VII Summary• The pilot is focused on fixing his plane. Meanwhile, the little prince is
deep in contemplation. When he decides to discuss his thoughts with the pilot, he asks if sheep eat flowers. The pilot answers, absent-mindedly. The little prince persists in asking a series of questions aimed at determining whether or not a flower's thorns might protect it. Eventually, out of frustration, the pilot answers glibly and tells the little prince he cannot talk about flowers and thorns and sheep when he's trying to do something of consequence. This gravely wounds, then angers, the little prince. He informs the pilot that loving a flower and protecting that flower are the most important things in the world and if anybody thinks it is of no consequence.....
• Chapter VIII Summary• The little prince tells the pilot of his beautiful
flower: How he first saw her emerge from the ground and thought she might be a strange kind of baobab. He tells the pilot all about her slow and meticulous grooming prior to showing herself and complains of her excessive vanity. He also confesses that his own limitations made it difficult for him to respond to her appropriately. He admits to feeling a little guilty about having left her. He says he was simply too young to know how to love her.
• Chapter IX Summary• This chapter takes the reader back to the preparations
made by the little prince just prior to departing his planet to begin his journey. First, he cleans out his volcanoes (which tend to erupt now and again if not tended to.) Then he plucks the baobabs he can see. His final task is watering and covering his flower with the protective glass globe she had earlier insisted upon. But just as he is about to lower the globe over his flower, she speaks. Her words are of love and forgiveness. She does not rebuke him for leaving but says she understands and she will be fine.
• Chapter X Summary• The first stop on the prince's journey is a small planet
ruled by a king. The king has no subjects. Naturally, when the little prince appears, the king is quite pleased. He explains to the prince all the orders he gives must be obeyed, but he also takes pains to make it known that if his orders are not followed, it is his own fault for issuing poor instructions. When the prince yawns, the king orders him to yawn more. When the prince says he cannot force a yawn, he is ordered to yawn sometimes, rather than on command. The king is very good and amiable. Still, he is a grown up, and as such he has a grown up flaw: he must control. Having no one and nothing on his planet over....
• Chapter XI Summary
• In this chapter the little prince encounters a man so conceited that he can hear only praise. He asks the little prince to praise him, and the little prince complies. But it is a boring way to spend a day and after a very short visit, the little prince takes his leave
• Chapter XII Summary
• The third planet the little prince visits is inhabited by a drunk. This "tippler" drinks to forget the shame of drinking. The little prince finds this absurd and does not spend much time there.
• Chapter XIII Summary• The little prince meets a businessman obsessed
with counting stars. This makes no sense to the prince, who wishes to know what the man does with the stars. When the man admits he simply counts them, the little prince is baffled. He goes on to explain that he too owns things: his flower and his planet. But unlike the businessman, who merely counts his possessions, the little prince actually cares for his. In this way, he tells the businessman, his ownership of them has meaning. But what.....
• Chapter XIV Summary• In this chapter the little prince meets the lamplighter. He
is an archetypal adult, but instead of taking on the exaggerated qualities associated with success, this man is a simpleton. He has orders to light and extinguish a lamp and that is all he does. Since he began his job, the tiny planet he inhabits has increased the speed of its orbit such that the poor lamplighter must constantly either light or extinguish his lamp. It's a nonstop job and the lamplighter is exceedingly tired. While the little prince recognizes the absurdity of his situation, he also feels love for the lamplighter, who fulfils his orders without fail, no matter how tired he might be.
• Chapter XV Summary• When the little prince visits his sixth planet, he meets a geographer.
The little prince asks the geographer what a geographer does and is treated to a thorough description. Expecting the geographer's expertise to have resulted in some exciting discoveries, the little prince asks him how many rivers and lakes and mountains are on his planet. But the geographer cannot tell him. It seems that while his credentials as a geographer are not in question, a lack of explorers makes it impossible for him to catalogue anything. A geographer, he explains to the little prince, cannot be bothered with exploring. That is too mundane a task for one as important as a geographer. So the little prince tells the geographer about life on his own planet and about his flower and his volcanoes......
• Chapter XVI Summary• This chapter consists of the author's assessment of the
planet earth as it pertains to the general breakdown of adult types. He estimates there are over a hundred kings, almost 100,000 businessmen, three-quarters of a million tipplers and well over 300,000 conceited men. Yet the most impressive of them all are the lamplighters, who would perform (prior to the advent of electricity, of course) each day and night, like clockwork. Country by country, the lights would go on and then off again. And each day all the lamplighters would carry out their orders in precisely the same manner. He describes their daily ritual as one of great pageantry, using the visual image.....
• Chapter XVII Summary• The little prince takes the advice of the geographer and
decides to visit planet Earth. In this chapter he meets his first Earthling: a snake. The snake tells the prince that he normally kills whatever he touches, but that he can tell the prince is innocent and true and that he comes from a star. For this reason, the snake spares him. But he does tell the prince that if he should decide at some future date to go back from whence he came, he can ask the snake for assistance. The little prince understands quite well. This foreshadows the end of the story, when the prince will return to the snake for the poison that will release him from his earthly body.
• Chapter XVIII Summary
• The prince has a short conversation with an unremarkable flower. The flower tells the prince that as far as she knows there are only about six or seven men in existence and they are a bit hard to keep track.....
• Quotes• "If you please--draw me a sheep!" Chapter II, pg. 9• "Straight ahead of him, nobody can go very far . . . "
Chapter III, pg. 16• "When you've finished your own toilet in the morning,
then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care." Chapter V, pg. 21
• "It is entertaining. It is rather poetic. But it is of no great consequence." Chapter XIII, pg. 47
• ". . . never in his life let go of a question, once he had asked it." Chapter XV, pg. 54
• "One only understands the thing one tames . . ." Chapter XXII, pg. 67
• The Dangers of Narrow-Mindedness• The Little Prince exposes the ignorance that accompanies an incomplete and narrow-minded perspective. In Chapter IV, for example, when the
Turkish astronomer first presents his discovery of Asteroid B-612, he is ignored because he wears traditional Turkish clothing. Years later, he makes the same presentation wearing European clothing and receives resounding acclaim. Because the three-petaled flower described in Chapter XVI has spent its whole life in the desert, it incorrectly reports that Earth contains very few humans and that they are a rootless, drifting people.
• Even the protagonists of The Little Prince have their moments of narrow-mindedness. In Chapter XVII, the narrator confesses that his previous description of Earth focused too much on humans. In Chapter XIX, the little prince mistakes the echo of his own voice for that of humans and falsely accuses humans of being too repetitive. Such quick judgments, the story argues, lead to the development of dangerous stereotypes and prejudices. They also prevent the constant questioning and open-mindedness that are important to a well-adjusted and happy life.
• For the most part, The Little Prince characterizes narrow-mindedness as a trait of adults. In the very first chapter, the narrator draws a sharp contrast between the respective ways grown-ups and children view the world. He depicts grown-ups as unimaginative, dull, superficial, and stubbornly sure that their limited perspective is the only one possible. He depicts children, on the other hand, as imaginative, open-minded, and aware of and sensitive to the mystery and beauty of the world.
• In the story’s opening pages, the narrator explains that grown-ups lack the imagination to see his Drawing Number One, which represents a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant, as anything other than a hat. As the story progresses, other examples of the blindness of adults emerge. As the little prince travels from planet to planet, the six adults he encounters proudly reveal their character traits, whose contradictions and shortcomings the little prince then exposes.
• The little prince represents the open-mindedness of children. He is a wanderer who restlessly asks questions and is willing to engage the invisible, secret mysteries of the universe. The novel suggests that such inquisitiveness is the key to understanding and to happiness. However, The Little Prince shows that age is not the main factor separating grown-ups from children. The narrator, for example, has aged enough to forget how to draw, but he is still enough of a child to understand and befriend the young, foreign little prince.
• Enlightenment through Exploration • As the critic James Higgins points out, each of the novel’s main characters hungers both for adventure (exploration of the outside world) and for
introspection (exploration within himself). It is through his encounter with the lost prince in the lonely, isolated desert that the friendless narrator achieves a newfound understanding of the world. But in his story of the little prince’s travels, Saint-Exupéry shows that spiritual growth must also involve active exploration. The narrator and the prince may be stranded in the desert, but they are both explorers who make a point of traveling the world around them. Through a combination of exploring the world and exploring their own feelings, the narrator and the little prince come to understand more clearly their own natures and their places in the world.
• Relationships Teach Responsibility• The Little Prince teaches that the responsibility demanded by relationships with others leads to a greater understanding and appreciation of one’s
responsibilities to the world in general. The story of the prince and his rose is a parable (a story that teaches a lesson) about the nature of real love. The prince’s love for his rose is the driving force behind the novel. The prince leaves his planet because of the rose; the rose permeates the prince’s discussions with the narrator; and eventually, the rose becomes the reason the prince wants to return to his planet. The source of the prince’s love is his sense of responsibility toward his beloved rose. When the fox asks to be tamed, he explains to the little prince that investing oneself in another person makes that person, and everything associated with him or her, more special. The Little Prince shows that what one gives to another is even more important than what that other gives back in return.
• Motifs • Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.• Secrecy • At the heart of The Little Prince is the fox’s bold statement that “[a]nything essential is invisible to the eye.” All the characters the little prince
encounters before coming to Earth eagerly and openly explain to him everything about their lives. But the little prince finds that on Earth, all true meanings are hidden. The first character to greet him on Earth is the snake, who speaks only in riddles. In subsequent chapters, the narrator and the little prince frequently describe events as “mysterious” and “secret.” This choice of words is crucial to the book’s message. To describe the mysteries of life as puzzles or questions would imply that answering them is possible. The fact that events on Earth are cast as mysteries suggests that they never can be resolved fully. However, this idea is not as pessimistic as it might seem. The novel asserts that, while many questions in life remain mysteries, exploration of the
• unknown is what counts, even though it does not leads to definite answers.• The Narrator’s Drawings • The narrator’s illustration of his story emphasizes Saint-Exupéry’s belief that words have limits and that many truths defy verbal explanation. The
narrator places drawings into the text at certain points to explain his encounter in the desert, and although his illustrations are simple, they are integral to understanding the novel. Saint-Exupéry defies the convention that stories should be only text and enriches his work by including pictures as well as words.
• The drawings also allow the narrator to return to his lost childhood perspectives. He notes that he uses his Drawing Number One to test adults he meets. The drawing is actually of a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant, but to most adults it looks like a hat. Whether or not a character recognizes the drawing as a hat indicates how closed-minded he is. The narrator notes several times in his story that drawing is very difficult for him because he abandoned it at age six, after finding that adults were unreceptive to his drawings. Therefore, his decision to illustrate his story also indicates his return to the lost innocence of his youth.
• Taming • Saint-Exupéry’s tale is filled with characters who either should be or have been tamed. The fox explains that taming means “creating ties” with another
person so that two people become more special to one another. Simple contact is not enough: the king, the vain man, the drunkard, the businessman, the geographer, and the lamplighter all meet the prince, but are too stuck in their routines to establish proper ties with him. The fox is the first character to explain that in order to be truly connected to another, certain rites and rituals must be observed, and two people must give part of themselves to each other. In fact, the process of taming is usually depicted as being more labor-intensive for the one doing the taming than for the person being tamed. Despite the work and emotional involvement required, taming has obvious benefits. The fox explains that the meaning of the world around him will be enriched because the little prince has tamed him. In contrast, the businessman cannot even remember what the stars he owns are called.
• Serious Matters • The concept of “serious matters” is raised several times in the novel, and each time, it highlights the difference between the priorities of adults and
children. To adults, serious matters are those relating to business and life’s most basic necessities. For example, the businessman who owns all the stars refers to himself as a “serious person,” an obviously ridiculous claim since he has no use for and makes no contribution to his property. Even the narrator expresses an understandably desperate claim that fixing his engine is more serious than listening to the prince’s stories. However, the narrator soon admits that the engine troubles in truth pale in comparison to the little prince’s tears.
• Saint-Exupéry clearly sides with children, represented by the little prince, who believe that serious matters are those of the imagination. For the little prince, the most serious matter of all is whether the sheep the narrator has drawn for him will eat his beloved rose. As the story progresses, the narrator’s understands the importance of the little prince’s worry. The narrator responds with compassion to the prince’s concern about the sheep from the beginning, setting his tools aside and rushing to comfort the prince in Chapter VII, when the little prince cries out that the question of whether his sheep eats his rose is much more important than the narrator’s plane. However, in his final comment, the narrator says that the question of the sheep and the flower is so important that it has changed his view of the world, revealing that he has understood the question’s importance himself.
• Symbols • Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.• The Stars • As a pilot, the narrator attaches importance to stars because he depends upon them for navigation. After the narrator meets the little prince, he finds the
stars hold new meaning for him because he knows that the prince lives among them. The stars in The Little Prince also symbolize the far-off mystery of the heavens, the immensity of the
• universe, and at the end, the loneliness of the narrator’s life. The narrator’s final drawing, which accompanies his lament of his loneliness, is of a single star hovering over the desert landscape in which the prince fell. In this one image, the presence of the star both highlights the prince’s absence and suggests his lingering presence. The star is also a reminder of the large and densely populated universe beyond Earth that the prince recounted visiting.
• The Desert • The novel is set in the Sahara Desert, a barren place ready to be shaped by experience. The desert is also a
hostile space that contains no water and a deadly serpent. In this capacity, the desert symbolizes the narrator’s mind. Made barren by grown-up ideas, the narrator’s mind slowly expands under the guidance of the little prince in the same way that the deadly desert slowly transforms itself into a place of learning and, once the well appears, refreshment.
• The Trains • The trains that appear in Chapter XXII represent the futile efforts we make to better our lot. The train rides are
rushed voyages that never result in happiness because, as the switchman informs the prince, people are never happy where they are. Also, the trains rush at each other from opposite directions, suggesting that the efforts grown-ups make are contradictory and purposeless. Again, it is children who grasp the truth. They see that the journey is more important than the destination and press their faces hungrily against the windows as they ride, taking in the scenery.
• Water • By the story’s end, the drinking of water emerges as a clear symbol of spiritual fulfillment. The narrator’s concerns
about running out of water after he first crashes into the desert mirror his complaint that he has grown old. Later, when he and the prince find the mysterious well, the water the narrator drinks reminds him of Christmas festivities. His thoughts of Christmas ceremonies suggest that his spirit, and not his body, is what truly thirsts. The salesclerk sells a thirst-quenching pill, but the little prince reveals that there are no true substitutes for real spiritual food. The pill may quench one’s desires, but it has little to offer in the way of real nourishment. The prince declares that he would use the minutes saved by the pill for getting a cool drink of water, the only real spiritual fulfillment for which one can hope.
