ANALYSIS OF LITTLE PRINCE

Chapters I–III

By beginning his story with a discussion of his childhood

drawings, the narrator introduces the idea that perception of an item
varies from person to person. The narrator intends for people to see his
drawing as a boa constrictor eating an elephant, but most adults can’t
see the hidden elephant and think the drawing represents a hat.
Throughout The Little Prince, the narrator’s drawings allow Saint-
Exupéry to discuss concepts that he would not be able to express
adequately in words. Drawings, the novel suggests, are a way of
imparting knowledge that is more creative and open to interpretation,
and thus more in line with the abstract perspectives of children. Because
it must be interpreted, Drawing Number One is an example of a symbol.
It is a picture of a hat that actually signifies a boa constrictor that has
swallowed an elephant, but the viewer must have the imagination to
spot that non-literal meaning.
Chapter II also reinforces these ideas about the power of drawings
and the importance of imagination. Saint-Exupéry suggests that, like
the narrator and the little prince, the reader will have to use his or her
imagination to grasp the real story. The drawings invite the reader to
join in the narrator’s encounter with the little prince and to deduce the
meaning of the drawings along with the story’s characters. By putting
the drawings in the text, Saint-Exupéry is crediting us with the same
powers of imagination as those of the little prince and the narrator. It is
up to us, therefore, to make the book come to life. We must see the story
in the same way that the little prince can see a sheep living and sleeping
in the narrator’s drawing of a box.
The way the little prince can immediately see beyond first appearances
and perceive the boa constrictor in the narrator’s first drawing and a
sheep hidden in a box shows how different children are from adults. The
adult perspective in Chapter I is unimaginative, overly pragmatic, and
dull, while the childish perspective is creative, full of wonder, and open
to the mysterious beauty of the universe. The novel suggests that both
adulthood and childhood are states of mind rather than facts of life. The
narrator, for example, is an adult when he tells the story, but he longs
for companions with the pure perspective of childhood.
 The narrator’s loneliness at the beginning of Chapter II shows
how important relationships with others are. In the desert, the narrator
is stranded from all human contact, but his isolation allows him to
indulge in the most fulfilling relationship of his life. Forcibly removed
from the corrupting influence of the grown-up world, he is able to
embrace the prince and the lessons his new friend has to offer.
The narrator’s constant questioning in Chapters II and III, however,
shows that we cannot hope to have answers simply handed to us. In
Chapter III, the narrator is full of questions, but if the little prince
answers them at all, he does so with oblique, indirect responses. The
story suggests that questions are much more important than answers.
Later, both the prince and the narrator discuss this lesson in greater
detail.

Chapters IV–VI

In Chapter IV, speaking in a confidential tone, the narrator

clarifies the distinctions between the world of grown-ups and the world
of the little prince. By referring to adults as “they,” the narrator pulls us
onto his side, so that we feel we share a perspective with the narrator
that others cannot understand. Also, the narrator does not mention the
little prince when he discusses the adult obsession with numbers,
stereotypes, and other forms of quantitative analysis. To underscore the
vast difference between the narrator’s conversation with the little prince
and the conversations of the grown-up world, the narrator does not
discuss both within the same chapter.
The narrator’s discussion in Chapter V of the baobab trees can be
read as a condemnation of Nazi Germany and of the blind eye the rest of
the world turned to the actions of Adolf Hitler. Saint-Exupéry wrote The
Little Prince in New York in 1942 as he watched World War II tear his
native Europe apart. In the novel, the narrator explains that the world
contains both good seeds and bad seeds, and he says it is important to
look constantly for the bad seeds and uproot them because the trees will
otherwise grow and crush everything around them. Yet the narrator
points out that on Earth, baobabs do not pose a problem. It is only on
smaller planets like Asteroid B-612 that the baobabs are dangerous.
Therefore, some see the baobabs as symbols of the everyday hurdles and
obstacles in life that, if left unchecked, can choke and crush a person.
This interpretation explains the narrator’s statement that people wrestle
with baobabs every day, often without even knowing it.
 Saint-Exupéry stresses personal responsibility as the solution to
the problem the baobabs pose. In doing so, he continues a classic
tradition within French literature that links responsibility to gardening.
For example, the final line of the French author Voltaire’s well-known
novel Candide states, “We must cultivate our own Garden. . . . When
man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should
work, which proves that man was not born to rest.” The metaphor of
gardening recurs throughout The Little Prince.

Chapters X–XII

The chapters in which the narrator describes the prince’s journey

from planet to planet are an example of a picaresque narrative.
Picaresque is a genre of episodic literature in which a protagonist
travels from place to place or has one adventure after another. In The
Little Prince, each of the adults the prince encounters on the various
planets he visits symbolizes a particular characteristic of adults in
general.
The king is a political figure, but Saint-Exupéry satirizes the
king’s personality rather than the political system the king represents.
Saint-Exupéry emphasizes that the king is not a tyrant but simply a
ridiculous man who possesses a petty need for power and domination.
The king, like the other characters the prince encounters, is very lonely.
Yet the king’s desire to rule so consumes him that he doesn’t treat the
prince’s visit as an opportunity to lessen his loneliness. Instead, he tries
to fit his visitor into his own distorted worldview by commanding the
prince to serve as his minister of justice.
Even though the king is a nice man who tailors his commands to
suit the little prince’s wishes, the prince objects on principle to the idea
of being commanded. The prince’s reaction to the king emphasizes the
importance of free will and taking responsibility for one’s actions. The
prince refuses to judge others, and he refuses to do anything he has not
willed himself. Since the king points out that he always pardons the rat,
it would be simple for the prince to please the king by condemning the
rat to death. Yet the prince refuses because the idea of condemnation
bothers him. The prince reacts in a similar way when the king appoints
him as his ambassador. The prince remains silent as he leaves, implicitly
rejecting this title. He then continues his travels on his own volition, not
as a representative of the king.
 The vain man’s sense of self-worth parallels the king’s authority
in its meaninglessness. Like the king’s authority, the vain man’s
superiority depends on being alone. As long as he is the only man on the
planet, he is assured of being the most attractive man on the planet. At
the same time, the vain man’s sense of superiority depends on the praise
of visitors. These contradictions underscore Saint-Exupéry’s disdain for
grown-up life. He argues that adults, with their limited, unimaginative
views, don’t know what they truly need in their lives. The adults the
little prince meets are capable of only pushing companionship away
when it presents itself.
Though he is flawed, the drunkard is more sympathetic than the
king and the vain man are. Unlike them, the drunkard seems somehow
trapped against his will. The fact that he drinks to forget that he is
ashamed of his drinking is absurd and irrational, but the fact that
“shame” plays such a big part in his actions indicates his awareness of
his life’s emptiness. However, the drunkard shows himself to be just as
much of a grown-up as the king and the conceited man are. The arrival
of the prince presents an opportunity for the drunkard to break the
cycle, but instead the drunkard retreats into silence, as he is too
stubborn and unwilling to address his serious problems.

Chapters XIII–XV

Instead of shaking his head and moving on as he does at the first

three planets, the prince takes the time to express his disapproval of the
businessman’s way of life. The extra time he devotes to chastising the
businessman shows that the businessman epitomizes the flaws of the
grown-up world more than any other character. The prince astutely
likens the businessman to the drunkard. Both are so preoccupied by
meaningless pursuits that they have no time for visitors. The
businessman is so riveted by the idea of ownership that he cannot, when
pressed, even remember that his properties are known as stars. The
prince further demonstrates the shallowness of the businessman’s
enterprise by pointing out that the businessman is of no use to his
possessions.
The prince admires the lamplighter’s commitment to his work,
and he admires the work itself, which brings beauty into the universe.
Nevertheless, the lamplighter displays some grown-up values. He blindly
follows orders that are obsolete, and he is unwilling to try the prince’s
suggestion that he take a break by walking in the direction of the sun.
The lamplighter’s actions are suggestive of religious worship. He
follows mysterious orders from an invisible, outside power, which he
serves with humility. His job of lighting and extinguishing suggests a
kind of ritual observance, like the Jewish tradition of lighting Sabbath
candles or the role that candles commonly play in Christian worship. In
some ways, Saint-Exupéry could be celebrating the power of religious
observance and of giving oneself up to a higher power. Certainly, the
lamplighter’s devotion to his profession is nobler than the
businessman’s devotion to his possessions.
Nonetheless, the lamplighter is a tragic figure. Among other
things, he is a victim of circumstance. His planet is too small for other
people, so he is doomed to be without companionship. He is also tired
and expresses his great desire to sleep. The lamplighter’s main affliction
is his inability to gain satisfaction from his work. Like many people who
observe religious rites, the lamplighter carries out his lighting rites
because he has been told to, but he never gives them the reflection that
is necessary for true enlightenment. In the world of The Little Prince,
sadness is a part of admirable lives in the same way that the baobabs
are an unavoidable danger that is part of the natural world.
Like the lamplighter, the geographer’s understanding of duty and
profession is flawed. He claims to know everything, but he knows very
little because he so rigidly refuses to explore for himself. The geographer
has the means to be a man of some genuine importance, but his blind
adherence to an arbitrary rule about what geographers are supposed to
do makes him as shallow as the other grown-ups.
However, the geographer’s lesson about the ephemerality of the rose
makes him a key character. The geographer sees the flower’s
ephemerality as a sign that the rose is unimportant, but for the little
prince, it makes the rose even more special. When he realizes how much
the rose needs him, the little prince experiences his first moment of
regret. His love for the rose hinges on her dependence on him, so the
pressures of time and death make the prince value her all the more.
Because the rose will one day die, it is all the more important for the
prince that he love her while he can.
Chapters XVI–XX

Like the baobabs, the snake the little prince meets in Chapter
XVII represents a force that is harmful. He evokes the snake of the
Bible, who causes Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden by convincing
them to eat the forbidden fruit. The snake in The Little Prince serves a
similar function. He speaks coyly of his powerful poison and then
tantalizes the prince with the idea of sending him home. Although he
cannot strike a creature as innocent as the prince, the snake suggests
that the prince is too weak and frail for this world and alluringly
phrases an offer for a quick trip back to the prince’s planet.
Interestingly, the snake seems to need to be invited to kill.
In Chapters XVI and XVII, the narrator switches viewpoints
several times. He initially presents a very matter-of-fact way of looking
at the world, focusing on the exact number of kings, geographers,
businessmen, drunkards, and vain men the world contains. His tone
quickly becomes colorful and impassioned as he describes the global
“ballet” of the lamplighters. Then, as chapter XVII begins, the narrator
adopts a confessional tone and admits that his portrait of the earth has
not been entirely truthful, because he has focused on men, who are not
actually such a significant part of the planet. The narrator’s deceit
suggests that both the pragmatic viewpoint of adults and the
imaginative viewpoint of children have limits. At the same time, his
deceit shows his fluency with different ways of looking at the world, a
sign that his mind has been opened.
Chapters XVIII and XIX further explore how one’s perspectives
can be limited. From a stationary viewpoint, no character can
accurately assess the world. The three-petaled flower has seen only a
few men pass by in the desert, so the flower thinks men are rootless and
scarce in number. The prince hears his own echo, so he thinks that men
simply repeat what is said to them. Even a figure as enlightened and
likeable as the little prince cannot help but have his beliefs shaped by
his limited perspective of the world around him.
A change in perspective means learning new things, and the
prince’s discovery of the rose garden illustrates how painful some
lessons can be. The prince’s discovery that his rose is quite ordinary
makes him feel plain and ordinary. In a way, the prince has lived a life
like the vain man’s. Alone on his planet, he was convinced that his was
the only flower with any value
Chapters XXI–XXIII

The episode with the fox requires a note on Saint-Exupéry’s use of

the verb “tame.” In English, this word connotes domestication and
subservience. But the French have two verbs that mean “to tame.” One,
“domestiquer,” does, in fact, mean to make a wild animal subservient
and submissive. The Little Prince, however, uses the verb “apprivoiser,”
which implies a more reciprocal and loving connection. The distinction
between these two words is important, since the original French word
does not have the connotations of mastery and domination that
unfortunately accompany the English translation.
The fox’s disclosure of his secret neatly sums up a moral that runs
through the novel: that which is secret is also what is most important.
Beginning with the narrator’s insistence that the hidden image in
Drawing Number One is the most important one, the significance of
secrecy is hinted at throughout The Little Prince, but the fox’s words
make it explicit. In 1939, Saint-Exupéry wrote, “Don’t you understand
that somewhere along the way we have gone astray? . . . we lack
something essential, which we find it difficult to describe. We feel less
human; somewhere we have lost our mysterious prerogatives.” This
“something essential,” and these “mysterious prerogatives” are the
invisible secrets that the fox urges the prince to value.
The fox’s lessons must be learned rather than taught, and when
the fox reveals his secret, he really only confirms what the prince has
already learned for himself in his explorations. The little prince’s
journey allows him to explore himself as well as the world around him,
but the fox shows that even the hardiest of explorers need validation.
The fox is a mentor figure who points out the important things the
prince has learned and helps him clear his thoughts. When the fox
explains what it means to be tamed, the prince realizes that he has
already been tamed by his rose, even though he didn’t know that the
process had a name. The fox urges the prince to revisit the rose garden,
but the prince learns the second part of the fox’s secret—that the time
he has devoted to his rose is what makes her unique—on his own.
After stressing in Chapter XXI that devoting time to one another
is what creates the special bonds between different beings, The Little
Prince offers two examples of time poorly spent, where technology
speeds people along at the expense of things that have genuine value.
The trains race by at lightning speed, but only the children are able to
appreciate what is worthwhile about the trip. The switchman points out
that all their moving does not make the grown-ups any happier. The
salesclerk with his water pills also emphasizes time-saving, telling the
prince that his pills can save people up to fifty-three minutes a day. The
little prince’s retort that these extra minutes would best be put to use
walking slowly toward a cool fountain undermines the purpose of the
salesman’s thirst-quenching product.

Chapters XXIV–XXV

In Chapters XXIV and XXV, the narrator learns through

experience the lessons that the prince learned while with the fox. The
search for the well in the desert makes it clear to the narrator that
people must discover the true meaning of things for themselves in order
for those things to have value. The narrator finds the well while he is on
his own, holding the sleeping little prince in his arms. Once the narrator
has learned this lesson about how the process of discovery makes the
results worthwhile, he takes it to heart and is able to apply it to the
emotions and intuitions of his past, as he does when he reminisces over
the mysterious house of his childhood. Even though the story shows us
all of the prince’s discoveries and encounters, Saint-Exupéry is trying to
inform us that we will not truly understand unless we search for
meaning ourselves. Even the narrator, who is a firsthand witness to the
prince’s story, needs to learn the fox’s lessons for himself through
experience instead of simply being told them.
Before they search for the well, the prince tells the narrator about
meeting a salesclerk who sold thirst-quenching pills. One might think
that such pills are exactly what the narrator and prince need to survive
in the desert, but they never once find themselves wishing for them.
When the narrator drinks from the well, he receives more than simple
physical nourishment. The water also revives his heart, and he finds it
more like a Christmas present than anything else. He says that what
makes the water taste so delightful is all the hard work that went into
finding it, emphasizing that relationships, objects, and experiences are
rewarding only when you invest time and effort in them.
Besides demonstrating important moral lessons, the relationship
between the pilot and the little prince is also very human. The prince
gently mocks the narrator’s drawings, and the narrator is struck by a
deep concern for the prince’s safety. Their relationship grounds the
story, and though their conversation introduces weighty topics like
spirituality and morality, the friendship between the narrator and the
little prince keeps the conversation casual.

Chapters XXVI–XXVII

For us, as for the narrator, the story of the little prince ends in
mystery. We are left to figure out whether the prince has managed to
save his rose. At times, the narrator is sure that the prince’s life on his
planet is a happy one. Other times, the narrator hears only the sound of
tears. The only thing that is certain is that one of the prince’s first
questions, about whether the sheep will eat his rose, has emerged in the
end as the most important question of all.
The narrator does not downplay the deep pain he felt because of
his friendship with the little prince. Although the narrator mentions that
he has other friends, the departure of this one has taken as much from
him as it has given him. The story has no qualms about the fact that
losing a loved one is painful, and its ending offers no consolation that
the narrator’s wounds will heal. On one level, these final chapters are an
allegory about dealing with the death of a loved one.
In spite of all this sadness, however, the story staunchly insists
that relationships are worth the trouble. The fox and the narrator may
both lose the little prince, but their world is enhanced nevertheless—
wheat fields and night skies come alive. To emphasize this positive
aspect of lost relationships, the narrator describes his desolate final
drawing of the barren landscape where the prince fell as both the
saddest and the loveliest place in the world. The Little Prince, though it
deals with serious and even upsetting issues, emphasizes the idea that
good can be derived from sad events. The little prince learns that his
rose must die, but this knowledge fires his love for her. The relationship
between the narrator and the prince reaches new levels of intensity only
after the prince makes it clear that he will depart.