The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince)

By Antoine de Saint-Exupery

‘The Little Prince’ is a French classic storybook. Written and Illustrated by Antoine de Saint-Exupery in the 20^th century after World War II. The book was top three of the world’s most translated book, also known as the world’s best selling book ever published. Though the book is recommended for all ages, not everyone will understand the real message.

The narrator in the book tells the whole story of the little prince’s adventure; he introduced himself as a pilot and crashed in the Sahara Dessert, where he met the little prince. The little prince said he came from an asteroid that is extremely tiny, the size of a house. Then the narrator referred it to B612. During the adventure the little prince met all sorts of people, plants and animals. Since it is close to a fairytale type of story, they could communicate. The king, whom thinks he owns the whole universe and is very bossy, he orders everyone around. The conceited man, he wants others to admire him and consider him as the best. The tippler, always drunk and use alcohol to forget the fact he is useless and lonely. The businessman, just like every other businessman nowadays, busy all day long; his only job is to count all the stars so that he can own them all. The geographer, he waited his whole life for travelers to visit his planet. The snake has the power to kill the little prince but promised he won’t. The snake appeared twice in the story, the beginning and ending, he promised the little prince to bring him back to where he came from. Also the lamplighter, the railway switchman and the merchant.

I hated the fox; he wanted the little prince to be his slave and never treated him with his heart. Although he once said, “One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” This sentence touched me, unforgettably.

The rose is my favorite character. The rose was the little prince’s obsession and affection. He deeply fell in love with her. She lied; she lied for him to love her more. The little prince didn’t understand why she did this so he left her all alone on her planet. Even if she apologized, he left her, for all the lies she told. He regretted afterwards because he remembered she said she only has four thorns to protect herself all alone in the dangerous world. They both loved each other but neither of the two knew how to express their love.

As I said, though the story is recommended for all ages, not everyone will understand the real message. Not even I did, because we don’t know what the real message is; only the author does. For kindergarten children, they might enjoy the fairytale. For primary students, they might think it is just another boring made-up story. For people my age, we might start to understand the story refers to real life. All fairytales has a moral and can be referred to real life, but the little prince is different, it is referring to the real cruel world. All the characters in the story seem to be in my personal life too, and probably everyone’s life. We all know someone that likes to order everyone like the king, someone that lies for love like the rose or someone that tippler that uses the alcohol to escape from the world for a little while. We are the little princes in our lives.