Published in April 1943, “The Little Prince” is categorized as a children’s book but is also popular among grown-ups. The simplicity of the language makes it suitable for both demographics. This novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry tells the story of a man who crashes his aircraft into a desert, where he meets someone who will change his life forever—the little prince.
The novel’s introduction is the biography of the boy who became a young man. From there, the author takes us to the desert, where the young man encounters a peculiar character, the little prince. As a flashback, away from the desert now, the young man recalls the little prince’s story and his too, consisting of the time the little prince spent on some planets- including his, before visiting Earth, where they meet.
The narrator introduces himself as a boy who tries to draw a snake that swallows an elephant. All the adults to whom he shows the picture assume it to be an illustration of a hat, and the boy concludes that the adults are not very discerning. He does not attempt to engage them in his fancies anymore.
Years later, he crashes into the desert as a fighter pilot, which sets up the story’s rising action. His very first encounter with the little prince is a request for him to draw him (the little prince) a sheep. He tries to illustrate the sheep, but after several unsuccessful attempts, owing to his lack of practice, he draws a crate and tells the little prince about the sheep in the crate. The prince is satisfied and says that this is precisely what he wants.
The story revolves around the little prince’s internal struggle to understand love, relationships, and responsibilities, particularly toward his rose, and it manages to drive this message home without being overly didactic.
The little prince goes on to tell him why he needs the sheep. He lives in a plant far away known as B612, with three volcanoes, two active and one dead. He used to clean out the volcanoes and cut the weeds that threatened to overrun his planet. He finds the baobabs particularly difficult to manage and wants the sheep to get rid of them.
Continuing his story, the little prince tells the narrator about a rose flower he owns and tends to because he loves her. He thinks she does not appreciate him enough and has a habit of playing up her issues to get him to pay her much attention. He even builds her a glass shelter to keep her safe. When he can’t bear her troubles, he decides to go on an expedition to see the vast universe. The little prince leaves them behind on his little planet on a mission that ends up being bigger than he anticipated, a mission in which he teaches creatures many lessons and learns from them in return. The story’s central conflict, the tension between the simplicity of a child’s world and the complexity of adult thinking, is revealed through the little prince’s adventures on his voyage.
The little prince travels through about five planets before arriving at Earth. On each planet, he meets one being (except on Earth, where he meets many beings) on one planet–this one has to be the smallest of them all–all the planets. He meets the little king, living in his bubble. The king is fond of giving orders, such as ordering the sun to rise in the morning and set in the evening. The little prince learns something valuable from him, though–that only reasonable orders are expected to be obeyed.
On another planet, he meets the lamplighter who prefers to sleep but feels he has to put the light off and on, signifying night and day; therefore, to him, that means no rest. On the lamplighter’s planet, there are thousands of sunsets in just one day. The little prince finds this incredible and wishes to witness it all. The lamplighter is also rigid because he continues his monotonous and tiresome work, even though the little prince has already suggested a better alternative for achieving the same results.
Planets here can easily be identified as asteroids, smaller rock-like masses that orbit the solar system. There are certainly billions of them in our solar system. It makes no difference what they are, though; our story is a fantasy, and we suspend our disbelief while encountering its fanciful elements.
On yet another planet, the little prince meets a merchant who is so engrossed in counting the stars that he is aloof and barely notices what is happening around him. He is counting the stars to sell them.
On another planet, the little prince meets the geographer who does no fieldwork and only waits for the explorers to research or do the fieldwork and bring back information for scrutiny. The geographer persuades him to go to Earth.
On another planet, he meets the conceited man. The man who thinks himself to be the “most handsome” around, even though it was only him on his planet.
On yet another planet, he meets the depressed man who keeps gulping and gulping drinks and who can’t get more drunk than he already was but who also can’t stop gulping. This man continues to grow sadder as a result. All the people mentioned are adults without much understanding, grown-ups much more delusional than they think others are.
By describing these eccentric adults through the eyes of a child, the author subtly critiques modern society with all its follies. People are consumed by concerns and activities that have no value and do not benefit them, which either satisfies their ego or has social approval.
On earth, he meets the fox, and from the fox, he learns to love and appreciate all he has and what they mean to him. This is the story’s turning point, helping the prince resolve his feelings about the rose. He learns that contentment can coexist with admiration for other things and others’ things and with healthy ambition. He also meets the snake, which is so full of itself.
He sees a lot of roses and realizes that his rose is not so unique, and he is disappointed for having spent so much time adoring her. However, from his relationship with the fox, he learns how taming a thing makes it special to you, and you become special to the fox. The fox suggests that favoring the rose makes it unique, and he becomes special to the rose. The fox asks the little prince to tame it, too.
In the little prince’s travel around the earth, he meets two other important characters: a railway switchman, who tells him of trains full of men in a hurry to get from one place to another and never satisfied to be in one place, and a merchant who sells pills that eliminate the need for drinking water. The little prince is appalled at how the things adults do make little sense.
Eight days after the narrator’s crash, he and the little prince nearly die of thirst. The prince locates a well, and this saves them. Shortly after, the narrator finds the prince talking to the snake about returning to his planet, suggesting that the snake’s bite would transport him back. The little prince worries about the rose and wonders how she is faring. To the man’s alarm, he reassures him that this is the only way to return, as his body is too heavy to take back. In the story’s climax, the snake bites the little prince.
This is one of the writer’s masterful strokes, making the work readable by both young and old, each gaining an appropriate understanding for their age. It is not apparent to young readers that the snake’s bite is fatal to the little prince, and they would get the impression that the little prince travels. But older readers see that the little prince means voyage metaphorically.
Just as it was difficult, his parting with the fox from whom he learned a great deal, at the end of his physical life, after having been bitten by a snake, things become pretty tense between and for the little prince and his friend. The little prince tries to joke about it, and he also tries to make the narrator see the bright side of all that, but he is too distraught to care. The little prince ignores all that and promises to assure his friend that he will always be there and must look up to the stars. This section marks the story’s falling action.
Six years later, the man reminisces. He doesn’t mind being thought crazy as he looks up to the sky, smiles, and even laughs, maybe knowing that his dear friend would most likely be smiling back. In the resolution, he tells the readers to watch out for the little prince if they are ever near his plane crash, where they met.
