Little Prince
The Little Prince is a story about a man who has shipped wrecked in the Sahara Desert and he has only eight days of water supply. During his eight days in the desert, he has a phantom about how he saw himself as a child. So, he would not be lonely Saint Exupery created an imaginary boy to keep him company. This imaginary boy was himself as a child. During his phantom, he discovered the real way he felt about adult relationships in his life as a child and how they had affected him as an adult.
This book is about Saint Exupery writing out his childhood memories as an adult. I see this in the examples when he is in the desert and the little prince appears to him. He saw himself as a handsome prince with blonde hair, wearing a long coat with two stars on the shoulders, black boots and a sword. I notice that throughout the book the little prince wore a scarf around his neck. I assume that Saint Exupery wore a scarf around his neck as well. In those days, pilots wore scarfs around their necks maybe for fashion. My guess is Saint Exupery was a handsome man and the little prince looked a lot like him. In the story, the little prince pictured everything small because he may have thought little of himself. I feel that Saint Exupery suffered with a narcissistic personality that may have been formed early as a child due to loneliness and sadness. Saint Exupery had to fill many voids in his life so he created imagination and fantasy as a child to get attention from adults. He may have felt that was the only way to get adults to listen to him.
Saint Exupery may have been shy as a child with few friends to play with him. He entertained adults with his drawings and they gave him ideas about what he should be in life. Saint Exupery loved adventure and fantasy. A world that no one could appreciate or understand but him. Saint Exupery knew that no one he knew would understand or appreciate his differences so he learned to love his likeness of himself.
While in the desert, the little prince asked Saint Exupery to draw him a picture of a sheep. Saint Exupery felt that he had little talent drawing as an adult because he was discourage to draw as a child by adults. He was told to forget about art and study arithmetic, geography, history and grammar. Those subjects would be valuable to him as well throughout his life. However, it did not make him happy. His first drawing at age six was a picture of a boa constrictor eating an elephant. As a child, he was talented and intelligent enough to draw exactly what he saw. However, adults never took the time or patience to really appreciate and understand his works. This discouraged Saint Exupery so much that he lost faith in himself and he developed low self-esteem.
Saint Exupery drew several sheep for the little prince which none of them pleased him. After several attempts, Saint Exupery could see that he was not satisfying the little prince with his drawings of sheep. So he decided to draw a crate with a sheep inside. This excited the little prince because he loved excitement and surprises. I believe as a child Saint Exupery may have enjoyed when he received gifts in boxes from adults because it made him feel happy not knowing what was inside.
Saint Exupery started to reminisce about his childhood and thinking about how it had affected him as an adult. This was painful for the little prince to remember. During the little prince’s travel, he came upon an astronomer dressed like a clown. This was exciting for the little prince because he loved clowns and he felt like clowns could relate to children better than adults. Nevertheless, if the clown would dress like an adult and ask questions that only adults would ask like, “how much money do you have? Or, how much money does your father make?” Then only then, will grown-ups listen to the astronomer, and take him more seriously.
I feel that something may have happen to the little prince as a child and he was taught to appreciate big things in life; and he may have been taught that hard work and discipline can get you bigger things in life. But for the little prince it was only the small simply things in life that he appreciated. Things that some may not appreciate like sunsets. Sunsets made the little prince happy. The little prince speaks to the king about granting him a sunset because he appreciated the sun setting in the evening and he wanted to see if adults really kept their promises to children. The king also wanted to show the little prince that if you give your word to someone follow through. Therefore, the person will believe and trust you. Therefore, the King granted him his sunsets.
During the little prince’s journey, he met a king, a vain man, and a drunkard, lamplighter and old man. Even though the fifth planet was small the little prince found it to be useful and with meaning. To the prince size does not matter it’s what you do with it. The prince showed respect for the man because he felt during all his adventures his planet was the most useful but it was just too small for them both.
For the first time on page sixty-six, I notice that Saint Exupery referred to himself as the little prince. He had run out of water and was trying to keep his mind off what was really taking place in his life. The little prince tried to remember the words told to him by the fox for encouragement to survive. The fox may have represented a strong force in Saint Exupery’s life as a child.
After walking for several hours the prince and Saint Exupery sat down to rest and that is when the prince mention to Saint Exupery that water can be good for the soul.
Saint Exupery and the little prince had an apparition of drinking water from a well. This helped ease their thirst. The little prince thought that in a rose you could find love, peace, life and understanding. And in a drink of water you can find, life, peace, happiness and love.
The little prince had a rose that he felt he had to protect from sheep. I believe he felt that he had to protect something that was special to him because as a child he may have never felt protected by adults or maybe adults over protected him. Either way he felt he had to protect his rose. However, as he traveled throughout life he could see there were many roses that needed protecting. He discovered, not only one rose is special but also roses in life are special. No matter where you go in life, you will always create ties to things that are important to you.
This book is worthwhile to me because I remember when I made my daughter a promise to buy her a stereo when she was thirteen. She really wanted this stereo it was nice with a five CD changer, double cassette player, AM/FM with extended recording time, with subwoofer speakers. She wanted this stereo so bad that she made sure that she kept her grades up for the rest of the year and did all of her chores on time. I promised her the stereo for her birthday and it was important for me do get it for her because I wanted her to know that I could keep my word. For me, I needed to know that she could keep her word as well, by doing what she said she would do. The same way the king kept his word to the little prince.
This book is also worth well to me because, I can remember one time a good friend of mind was feeling bad and had fallen into a deep depression. She felt like no one loved her and she was really out of control. I called her to chat and that’s when she started telling me about the tough time that she was having and how she was feeling down. I knew that she liked to hear me say something funny to make her laugh. Therefore, that is what I did I said something funny to make her laugh aloud. Even though it may have seemed like a small thing, it meant a lot to her. She would always say, “I’m glad you called girl, you made my day.” That always made me feel good as a person to her say those words. Just like the little prince appreciated the small planet that the lamplighter tended. She appreciated the small task of me making her laugh.
This book is worthwhile to me as well because during my life, I have always felt the need to protect the things that I love dearly like my family, and my personal relationships. I understand that the little prince felt the need to protect his rose from being eaten by sheep. In life, we protect those that we love. Then we realize that other things need protecting as well. No matter who you are or, where you go in life, you may feel the need to protect something that is special to you. To the little prince life may have been special like a rose.
I feel that Saint Exupery felt that children have to try and be understanding of adults because sometimes adults forget that they too were once children and they tell children things only to keep them quite so they want ask many questions. I also feel that Saint Exupery felt that adults need to try to appreciate the thoughts of children and try to encourage and support what they feel is important to them. Most adults think they know what’s best for children, and this may not always be true. I believe that Saint Exupery felt that a happier child would make a happier adult. I believe that Saint Exupery felt adults who show children they care meant they really cared about how a child felt about things in their life. I believe he also felt that it’s OK to show a child that you love and care for them; so as an adults they will not feel so all alone.
