Review: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
I was on the flight back to Malaysia after four months and a week staying in Cardiff. I sat back and scrolled through the movie list on the screen and saw the latest animated film of Le Petit Prince. Out of curiosity, I played it and started watching it until the end of the movie. There are so many words to describe this movie, the story and also, the Little Prince, but I’ll just pick this one word, “beautiful”. That was when I was determined to read The Little Prince, the most translated French book.
A head's up: This will be a super long review because, not only I will include my reading experience, this review encompasses some of my observations and analysis of the plot, characters and the author's illustration.
Another thing is, in this post, 'The Little Prince' and 'Le Petit Prince' are interchangeable.
Background
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was an author as well as a pilot. He wrote this story out of homesickness and nolstagia for childhood during WWII, when he was forced to stop flying planes and to leave his homeland.
The background of Le Petit Prince was derived from Antoine’s personal experience; he was forced to make a crash landing in the Sahara desert in 1939. In The Little Prince, the narrator is just like Antoine.
Furthermore, the prince represents Antoine as well! Antoine created the prince based on his philosophy and aspirations. Plus, just like Antoine, the prince loves to explore and travel in the skies.
Besides that, the prince’s relationship with the rose may be a reflection of Antoine’s relationship with his wife.
Since Le Petit Prince was written during the WWII, it is doubtlessly that the story has been influenced by the war. The evil characters in the book are often interpreted as references to Nazi Germany.
Plot
The unnamed narrator crashes in the Sahara desert with limited food and water. When he was flooded with fear of not having enough water to drink before he fixes his plane successfully, the little prince approached him and demanded the narrator to draw him a sheep. Here commences the friendship of the narrator and the little prince.
"On the first night, then, I went to sleep on the sand a thousand miles from all human habitation. I was more isolated than a shipwrecked man on a raft in mid-ocean. so imagine my surprise to be woken at daybreak by a funny little voice saying: 'If you please — draw me a sheep!'"
--- Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Le Petit Prince
Unlike the narrator, the little prince comes from another planet, known as Asteroid 325. Before the little prince started traveling, he stayed in his planet, having the routine of sweeping volcanoes and preventing growth of bad seeds. One day, a mysterious seed that comes from god-knows-where sprouted on the land of the little prince’s planet; turns out, it is a beautiful but vain rose. Nevertheless, the prince fell in love with it until one day, the rose lied and the little prince knew that he could not trust her anymore.
"'In the evenings you may place a glass dome over me. It is very cold on your planet. It lacks conveniences. Where I came from — ” Here she interrupted herself. For she had come in the shape of a seed, and could not possibly know anything about other worlds. Ashamed at letting herself be caught on the verge of such a naive lie, she coughed two or three times, to make the little prince feel at fault."
--- Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Le Petit Prince
As loneliness grew, he started to explore neighbouring planets. The little prince’s first time ever stepping out of his planet brought him the opportunity to have a few glance to the world of grown-ups. He visited the king, a conceited man, a drunkard, a geographer, a businessman and a lamplighter. All of these people live alone on their planets and were consumed in what they were doing. Their unreasonable behaviours upset the little prince because the latter does not seem to understand why they would do those things and act in that way. Also, on each planet, the story reveals the weaknesses and shallowness of the adults.
After that, the little prince lands on Earth. The first creature he met on Earth was a snake that has powerful venom that can send the little prince back to the heaven.
"‘I pity you, so frail, on this Earth of granite. I can help you, some day, should you grow too homesick for your planet. I could — ’""
--- Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Le Petit Prince
Subsequently, he conversed with a three-petaled flower, climbed to the tallest mountain he saw and eventually, he found a garden full of roses. This saddens him because his rose told him that she was the only one of her kind. Then, he make friends with a fox who teaches him that:
“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”
--- Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Le Petit Prince
After hearing what the fox said, the prince realises that, the rose is more important to him than it used to be during his exploring journey, and that, even though there are many roses, because of his love for his rose, it makes his rose special and therefore, loves makes him responsible for his rose. He felt even lonelier after such realisation.
On the eighth day of the narrator’s crash landing in the desert, the prince suggested to find a well and they set off despite the narrator thought that it is impossible to find a well. They found it on the next day and they shared a moment of bliss after drinking by agreeing with each other that many people often ignore what is truly important in life.
However, the little prince is keen on returning to his planet and he secretly plans with the snake so that the latter will fulfil his wish to head back to where he came from. The narrator found out about prince’s plan when he walked back to his little friend after successfully fixing his plane. On the one-year anniversary of the prince’s arrival on Earth, the narrator walks with the little prince to where the latter landed. Later, the snake bites the prince, who falls quietly to the sand.
“He fell as gently as a tree falls. There was not even any sound, because of the sand.”
--- Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Le Petit Prince
When the narrator fails to find the little prince’s body, he confirms the little prince has returned to his planet. Ever since, however, he grows unhappy and wonders if the sheep he drew for his little friend has eaten the rose. The story ends with the narrator, urging us to write to him, if we ever visit the desert landscape that was drawn on the book and saw that the little prince has returned. If you’ve realised, the landscape provided by the author is colourless. I wonder, does this mean that, everything lost its colour in the eyes of the author after the little prince left?
Characters
There are more than a handful of characters in The Little Prince but I’ll just pick and discuss 13 characters.
The Little Prince
Protagonist of the story. The Little Prince is a simple little boy who never gives up on a question that comes up in his mind. Most importantly, he wishes everyone to see the true beauty of everything. His innocence and simplicity is one of the reasons that moved me. He represents love, hope and open-mindedness of children.
The Narrator
Another protagonist of the story. In this story, he is the little prince’s confidant and in turn, he told us the prince’s story, meanwhile, having his own transformations. Although the narrator is an adult, he learns from the little prince when the latter taught him about the fox’s little secret.
The Rose
A vain, proud and naive flower who does not know how to love the little prince and hence, drives the latter away. Although the little prince traveled to places, it is the rose that occupies his thoughts.
The Snake
In the story, the snake speaks in riddles (because he can solve all riddles) and asks no question (because it doesn’t need any answer). The snake is so confident and this shows that he has mastered life’s lessons. There’s nothing much to learn from the snake as compared to other characters. However, his deadly venom may represent the inevitable occurrence of death. On a side note, this character reminds me of the snake of the Bible, which encourages Adam and Eve into eating the forbidden fruit.
The Fox
A small yet important character in this story. Although the fox appears only in a chapter and in a rather sudden way, he taught the little prince three important lessons: only the heart can see correctly; the time the little prince spend away from his planet makes him value his rose more and love results in responsibility.
The King
The King resides in the first planet the little prince visits. He claims to rule every creature and object in the universe but in fact, his power seems meaningless when there is nothing on his planet that is subject to his control.
The Conceited Man
On the second planet, the little prince encounters the conceited man who craves praise and only hears compliments. Nonetheless, he convinces himself being the richest and most attractive looking by remaining in his planet alone.
The Drunkard
The drunkard, the third person the little prince visits, who is a depressed and silly character as he drinks to forget that he is embarrassed of drinking.
The Businessman
The businessman is a parody version of adults as the grown-ups, nowadays, are always too busy for everything. Alone in his planet, the businessman counts the amount of stars he “owned” over and over again even though he does not remember what a star is known as and both star and himself contributes nothing to each other. Also, the little prince reprimands the businessman the most as compared to other characters.
The Lamplighter
The lamplighter is the fifth person the little prince meet after leaving his planet. Amongst all of the characters, the lamplighter is the most complex. His faithfulness to stick with his order of switching on and off the light gains the prince’s respect.
The Geographer
The geographer is the last character the little prince meets before his landing on Earth. At first, the geographer seems knowledgeable with his big book. In fact, however, he has no intention to explore his planet by claiming the job of exploring is of the explorer’s.
The Turkish Astronomer
This character is the first human to discover the prince’s planet. However, no one believes his discovery when he presents in his Turkish costume. His discovery was only accepted when he was wearing Western clothes. This shows the community’s usual behaviour towards foreigner, which is disliking them when the latter appears to be different. In other words, this illustration of such character hinted racism.
The Salesclerk
The pills the salesclerk sells relieve thirst so that people can have an extra fifty-three minutes a day if they don’t have to stop to drink. This shows that, nowadays, people don’t really think properly about whether the shortcut they take genuinely saves time.
Throughout the whole reading experience, I’ve discovered a few messages conveyed by the author. You may find some difficulty in reading my titles of the messages I want to share with you. So, I apologise for this in advance.
A Hint of Small-Mindedness
This message is obviously conveyed at that moment the Turkish astronomer’s discovery was only accepted when he was dressed in Western clothes (Chapter IV).
In the first few chapters, the author outlines a clear contrast between grown-ups’ and children’s views of the world. Adults are portrayed to be dull, stubborn and uncreative whereas the children are more open-minded, simple, sensitive to the surroundings and imaginative. For example, in the beginning of the story, the narrator spell out the adults’ lack of imagination to see his Drawing Number One (a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant) as the adults usually thought it to be a hat. A character who recognises the drawing as a hat shows how close-minded he is.
Also, a three-petaled flower in the desert who told the little prince that only a few “rootless, thus, drifting” humans are residing on Earth.
Spiritual Growth Requires Physical Exploration
Through searching for the well in the desert, the narrator and the little prince happen to make sense of the world. Also, through the narrator’s crash-landing in Sahara as a result of exploration, he gets to meet the prince and understand more clearly his own nature.
Love Entails Responsibility
This message is generated by the prince’s relationship with his rose. The fox on Earth taught the prince that, because the prince takes care of the rose, the latter then becomes more special in the heart of prince. Although the prince has travelled to places, the rose remains to be the reason for the prince to return to his planet; he finally understands that he should return to continue taking care of his rose. His responsibility towards his rose is generated by his love for the latter.
Own Thoughts
The messages Antoine wants to convey are very clear and the story made me thought of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking-Glass immediately. Just like Lewis Carroll, Antoine prefers children over adults because of the former’s innocence. This can be seen from all over the book.
Antoine always prefer children’s view of objects, life and the world and despise the flaws of grown-ups. Although the narrator (or Antoine) is an adult, but he retains his childlike perspective. Once again, unfortunately, just like Carroll, Antoine is destined to feel lonely as a result of his unusual point of view on life.
He used his Drawing Number One as a barometer to see whether a person retains his childhood perspective. However, adults always reply with a grown-up perspective. In turn, the narrator has to force himself to respond with them about dull matters.
"But he would always answer, 'That’s a hat.' Then I wouldn’t talk about boa constrictors or jungles or stars. I would put myself on his level and talk about bridge and gold and politics and neckties. And my grown-up was glad to know such a reasonable person."
--- Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Le Petit Prince
When the narrator asked the prince whether he was that sad on the day the latter watched forty-three sunsets in a day, the prince remained silent.
“You see, one loves the sunset when one is so sad.”
--- Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Le Petit Prince
Another thing that I would like to bring up is, I would very much prefer that he just went back to his planet and take care of his naive rose, though the truth of him planning his death clicked after a few times reading the same line. I was really sad when I close the book. My heart was, still is, filled with so many questions that cannot be answered: did the prince return to his planet safely, did the sheep eat the rose?
"'And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye'."
--- Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Le Petit Prince
The Little Prince may appear to be a book for children because of the author’s illustration. In my opinion, it is a book for adults, especially those who have lost their childhood innocence. Somedays, I will be in the mood of wanting to be treated very, very seriously because in those days, I want to be an adult. I want to busy myself with ‘serious things’ as mentioned in the book. I will not tolerate lame shit or things of sort. However, this book feeds my mind and soul. It reminds me that, there is always a good reason to stay optimistic, to remain hopeful. An adult retains a child’s innocence might sound ridiculous, but it is the innocence that makes us see the beauty and mystery of our lives.
Rating: ★★★★★
***Press into picture for source.
