The Little Prince; A Crtitical Analysis
The Little Prince; A Crtitical Analysis
The narrator, an airplane pilot, crashes in the Sahara Desert and meets the little prince. The little prince asks the pilot to draw him a sheep, and the two become friends. The pilot soon learns that the little prince comes from a small planet, called Asteroid B-612. The little prince took great care of his planet, preventing any bad seeds from growing. He fell in love with a mysterious rose that appeared one day. Unfortunately, he incorrectly thought that she did not love him back, so he decided to leave. Their last-minute reconciliation is not enough to prevent the little prince from departing at the beginning of the book with a flock of migrating birds.
The little prince passes by neighboring asteroids and meets adults for the first time. He first meets a king, a conceited man, a drunk, a businessman, a lamplighter, and then a geographer. The little prince is greatly confused by the adults' strange behavior. He does not understand their need to order people around, to be admired, to own everything. He thinks that ownership implies utility, not necessity. He does learn, however, that nothing lasts forever, and begins to miss his rose.
He finally arrives on Earth, but cannot find any humans. He meets a snake, who appreciates the little prince's innocence and is kind to him. He travels around some more, eventually befriending a fox. The fox teaches the little prince that the important things in life are only visible to the heart, and that one must take responsibility for one's actions. The little prince realizes that, even though there are many roses, his love makes his rose unique in the universe, and that he is responsible for her no matter what. Despite his discovery, he still feels very lonely, even after meeting two men, a railway switchman and a merchant.
Dying of thirst, the pilot and the little prince look for a well in the desert and actually find one. The two share a moment of bliss, realizing that people no longer see what is truly important in life. But the little prince is too homesick to stay with the pilot even after the plane is repaired. He asks the snake to bite him, so he can return to his small planet. The pilot is comforted by his new ability to look at the stars and hear his friend laughing, but hopes...