The Little Prince short summary & analysis

The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Little Prince Analysis

Although it is insistently put on the same shelf together with the children’s books, it is a book that must be read by every human being in various stages of their lives. The author is Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who is a French fighter pilot as well. He wrote this book in mid World War II. He died during the war when his plane was taken down. The book starts with this incident: A pilot goes down in flames into Sahara Desert and meets The Little Prince there. In the book, as a result of his departure from his own planet, the typical life-styles in six different planets, which are observed and experienced by The Little Prince, are being criticized. The King’s planet symbolizes his passion for authority; The Vain Man’s planet symbolizes his self-conceit and his lack of communication with the society; The Drunkard’s planet symbolizes hopelessness and, related with this, a desire to forget; the planet where The Businessman lives symbolizes an instinct of possession aimlessly; The Lamplighter’s planet symbolizes the sense of duty that is fulfilled unquestioningly; The Geographer’s planet symbolizes the scientific understanding and the scientist who forgets for whom he does the science.

The Little Prince Short Summary

It is easy to understand the book. A person carries pieces from his own childhood, that is, if he knows what childhood is like. Otherwise, one cannot make sense of what he reads. I'm sure that this cute friend, who comes from the planet B612 and tells us what kind of a place the world actually is, contributes something to everyone who reads it. To the grown-ups, for instance… This book is a proof of how incapable the grown-ups are of understanding children. The Little Prince explains the situation by saying “The grown-ups cannot understand anything on their own and it is exhausting for the children to explain everything to them all the time.”

The author receives unexpected responses when he asks his elders their opinion on the first picture he drew when he was six. Indeed! In your opinion, what is it in that picture?

If you still have imagination and if you are not a grown up yet, you will be seeing, just like me, a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant in that picture.

The Little Prince tells us that what we have is so special. In his planet, the only child is The Prince. A single rose is unique, too.

"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or ever sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose.”

In this book, there are many causes of happiness and love and they are taught to people.

"…It would have been better to come back at the same hour," said the fox. "If, for example, you come at four o'clock in the afternoon, then at three o'clock I shall begin to be happy. I shall feel happier and happier as the hour advances. At four o'clock, I shall already be worrying and jumping about…”

“…If you love a flower that lives on a star, it is sweet to look at the sky at night…And at night you will look up at the stars. Where I live everything is so small that I cannot show you where my star is to be found. It is better, like that. My star will just be one of the stars, for you. And so you will love to watch all the stars in the heavens.”

Everyone evaluates this book differently in every particular age. Maybe this is what makes it so special. Anyway, those I told you are the ones that I have gained from this book.

“Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume. So, in 1920 the astronomer gave his demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report.”

And, lastly, I would like to mention this paragraph that put a damper on the book. Because of this paragraph, this work was once removed from the list of 'One Hundred Fundamental Masterpieces' or was censored at another time. This part is related with what the book teaches you. You may evaluate this approach as a critique either towards Atatürk or to the Europeans. This matter which will never become clear is up to you. As The Little Prince says: “…what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

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