The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | Teen Ink

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

June 27, 2015
By KoreanGsus BRONZE, Northridge, California
KoreanGsus BRONZE, Northridge, California
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments

  Out of all the bed-time stories my parents read me during my youth, Little Prince was my favorite story. The interstellar travels and dialogues with animals that the Little Prince experienced intrigued my little mind into a whole new world of imagination. As I learned more about reality of human society, the Little Prince’s adventures to stars became a satirical allusion and dialogues within the story conveyed many symbols that referred to many elements of life. My parents planted me a small seed of imagination when I was little, which soon grew into an ability to gain greater insight to human nature. Saint-Exupéry’s personal experience of being stranded in the Sahara Desert is fused together with his abstract imagination to make a masterpiece that inspires little children and makes adults reflect their life.
   The story of the Little Prince starts with an ordinary boy expressing his dream to become a painter by drawing an elephant being digested within a Boa Constrictor. Unfortunately, every adult that ponders upon the painting mistakes it as a hat. Even though the boy fervently attempted to explain his creative piece, the adults ignored his explanations and suggested to set aside his dream. The boy laments the lack of creativity of adults and grows up to be a pilot that travels around the world.
   During one of his trips, the pilot crashes into the Sahara Desert with limited supplies. When he was trapped in the quagmire of despair, a blonde boy appears and asks the pilot to draw a sheep. After many unsuccessful attempts to draw an ideal sheep for the boy, the Pilot draws a crude box with three holes and tells the boy that the sheep is within the box. Surprisingly, the boy becomes delighted and thanks the pilot. Amazed by the boy’s imagination, the pilot names him the Little Prince.
   For the next eight days, the Little Prince explains his story of how he was stranded on Earth during his interstellar travels. He explains his asteroid in another solar system that consists of three volcanos and a rose. He describes the rose with such admiration that the pilot believes that the Little Prince is in love with the rose. The Prince further explains how the sheep the pilot drew will remove any weeds or undesirable plants that may hinder the rose. The rose was very demanding, confidant, and proud. She states that she is an unique individual that nothing else is similar to her. The unconditional devotion of the Prince due to compassion and acclaim was only replied with silence and mockery. The Prince slowly realized that he is being taken advantage of, and decides to depart from his home. At the last moment, the Rose apologizes to the Prince and urges the Prince to leave for his journey.
   The Prince travels to six other asteroids which was inhabited by foolish, narrow-minded adults such as a king without subjects, a man who thought he was the most admirable person who lived alone in his planet;a drunk who drank alcohol to forget his shame for being a drunk, a businessman who aimlessly counted stars since he claimed to own them all since no one besides him ever had to idea to possess them, a man who kept fusing the lamp and ceasing it every minute, and a geographer that never explored a single inch of the world. The Prince becomes shocked when the Geographer calls the rose ephemeral as he described the Prince’s asteroid from the massive book of geography. The next planet that he was stranded into was Earth.
    The Prince lands into the Sahara Desert and climbs into a huge rock that is surrounded by other small rocks. As he starts speaking the little rocks reflect the Prince’s voice as an echo. The Prince discovers the Rose’s lie by discovering a rose bush that had many roses just like the one at the Prince’s asteroid. Amongst his confusion, he befriends a fox that introduces him to hope by saying that there is always a well within a desert if the person was determined enough to seek it.
    The Prince finishes his story as the pilot fixes his plane. The Prince says the last farewell with the pilot and attempts to return to his planet. However, the weight of his body obstructs his return. Hence, he lets a deadly snake fatally inflict him with a poison. The pilot never believes that the Little Prince died, and concludes the story by searching for the Prince across the world.


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.