Analysis

Antoine de Saint Exupéry, born on 29th June 1900, was a pilot, too. So it’s probably that he is the pilot of the story. In the year 1935 he had an emergency landing in the desert of Egypt.

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

You have different possibilities to understand what the author wanted to say to us. The child-eyes of the “Little Prince” look forward to the essential part of life. The fox betrays him the secret:” One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” (page 63) Seen in this meaning the story is critical to our soulless society in which only material values are important.

Maybe it’s only a love-story between the “Little Prince” and his Rose. It’s a story about being together and being apart from someone important. So the story tells us about the longing and love.

The third meaning could be that the ”Little Prince” is a story of friendship. The pilot (alias Antoine de Saint Exupéry) and the “Little Prince” are allowed to experience real friendship.

To understand the character of the “Little Prince” was difficult for me. He is a very serious and pure boy, but his decision to return to his planet with the help of a bite of a snake was strange for me.

(218 words)

Looking back

A pilot made an emergency landing in the sahara, there he met a little boy from another star: the “Little Prince”.

He was at home on the little asteroid B 612, where his rose with four thorns bloomed and two volcanos served to warm up the breakfast.

When the pilot met the “Little Prince” he had visited already six other planets. Different grown-ups lived there. On the Earth the “Little Prince” met before other creatures. So he spoke with a fox and they became friends. The fox told him:” Here’s my secret. It’s quite simple: One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” (page 63)

After he met the fox he met the railway switchman and the salesclerk. The salesclerk wanted to sell pills invented to quench thirst. The “”Little Prince” told this story when the pilot and he were in the desert for eight days and had nothing to drink anymore. Later they found a well and the pilot left the “Little Prince” to repair the plane. When he came back the “Little Prince” had decided to go back to his planet with the help of a snake.

(194 words)

Prediction

The “Little Prince” and the pilot are going to be best friends. After they have found water in the desert the “Little Prince” says:

"”You know, my fall to Earth … Tomorrow will be the first anniversary…” Then, after a silence, he continued. “I landed very near here…” And he blushed.

And once again, without understanding why, I felt a strange grief. However, a question occurred to me: “Then it wasn’t by accident that on the morning I met you, eight days ago, you were walking that way, all alone, a thousand miles form any inhabited region? Were you returning to the place where you fell to Earth?”

The little prince blushed again…” (page 72)

….

I felt the enormous homesickness of this little boy. I felt the huge longing for his rose. I understood that he wanted to go back to his little planet with the three vulcanoes. All he had been looking for, he hadn’t found. Tears welled in my eyes and I decided to help him.

I had to repair my plane and, I had to help this little fellow. How could I help him?

When the plane worked, we could try to fly higher and higher. But I didn’t know wether this was possible. After a long time I succeeded in repairing the motor. The plane could start, I fetched the little prince and we left the desert. The little star in the sky that my little friend called his planet was our destination. I knew this expedition could be our last, but I had only one goal: I had to bring back the little prince.

After a long flight between a lot of stars and planets, the little prince was laughing. He said: “In front of us you can see my planet, … and look, there’s my rose!” He was so happy and I was happy too.

I dropped my little friend and returned to Earth.

A few years later I wrote this book to tell all people the story of my best friend, the little prince.

(336 words)

Relationship between the "Little Prince" and his Rose

The “Little Prince” leaves his planet, because his relationship with the rose is difficult. He cares for his flower but the rose very often gives him a bad conscience. “”I believe it is breakfast time,” she had soon added.” Would you be so kind as to tend to me?” And the little prince, utterly abashed, having gone to look for a watering can, served the flower. She had soon begun tormenting him with her rather touchy vanity.” (page 23)

The “Little Prince” can’t live with the rose, but he also can’t live without her. On the Earth he comes to a blossoming rose garden. Now the “Little Prince” feels very unhappy. His rose had told him that she was the only one of her kind. A fox explains the “Little prince” what the word “tamed” means. “I’m beginning to understand,” the little prince said. “There’s a flower…I think she’s tamed me…” (page 59) Now the “Little Prince” notices, that his rose is something unique for him and he decides to go back to look after her and see her again. At last he leaves the Earth, because he hasn’t found what he was looking for, because she waits for him on his own little planet. 

(206 words)

Character analysis of the "Little Prince"

The "Little Prince" is a boy, who has blonde and golden hair. He is a very unusual person with amazing eyes. Although he looks like a little boy, he is very clever. He has a childish impartiality but is although wise. He doesn't like grown-ups because their way of thinking is totally differnt. The things the grown-ups hold for important are not important for him. He takes on the resposibility for his planet:"It's a question of discipline," the little prince told me (the pilot) later on. "When you've finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet. You must be sure you pull out the baobabs regularly, as soon as you can tell them apart from the rosebushes, which they closely resemble to when they're very young. It's very tedious work, but very easy." (page 15) The only friend he has is a little, lonesome rose on his planet, but this flower is selfish. This plant commandes what the "Little Prince" has to do. Often the rose blackmails him. But the "Little prince" has a great sense of duty and looks after it.

(182 words)

Personal connection: Diary entry of the "Little Prince"

Dear diary,

I just have arrived on the seventh planet, that is called the Earth. I'm curious about the people who live there. Before that I visited six other planets:
The first planet was inhabited by a king. Wearing purple and ermine, he was sitting on a simple yet majestic throne. But I didn't understand the king because he wanted to command me. The king wanted to reign, but the planet was so tiny. I asked myself what could the king really reign. He was so strange, so I quickly left the first planet.
The second planet was inhabited by a very vain man. He wanted to be admired. I didn’t understand what he meant, so I left this planet, too.
The third planet was inhabited by a drunkard. This visit was a very brief one, but it plunged me into a deep depression. I thought, grown-ups were certainly very, very strange.
The fourth planet belonged to a businessman. The person was so busy that he didn’t even raise his head when I arrived. He wanted to own all things, but he didn’t do anything with his property. I looked after my flower and the three vulcanoes on my planet.
The fifth planet was very strange. It was the smallest of all. There was just enough room for a street lamp and a lamplighter. I couldn’t quite understand of what use a street lamp and a lamplighter could be up there in the sky, on a planet without any people and not a single house. So I visited the sixth planet. It was inhabited by an old gentleman who wrote enormous books. He was a geographer and he advised me to visit the earth.
Now I have landed on the earth and I’m very interested in the people who live there. The Earth is not just another planet! It contains one hundred and eleven kings (including, of course, the African kings), seven thousand geographers, nine-hundred thousand businessmen, seven-and-a-half million drunkards, three-hundred-eleven million vain men; in other words, about two billion grown-ups.
I hope I can understand one of them.

Your “Little Prince”

(347 words)

First impressions

First I think the "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a book for children, because there are many pictures inside of it. So chapter 1 starts with a story about the childhood of a pilot, who had a crash landing in the desert. He describes his experiences by drawing pictures. His first picture looks like this:
All people said:" It looks like a hat!"
"My (the pilot) drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. Then I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so the grown-ups could understand. They always need explanations. My drawing Number 2 looked like this: (page 2).
Grown-ups don't understand what the child (the pilot) wantded to say. In chapter 2 the pilot is grown-up and has an accident in the Sahara-desert. There he meets the "Little prince". He is the first human who understands his drawing.
He asks the pilot:" Can you draw me a sheep, please?" But all the sheep the pilot drew weren't right and so he drews only a crate and sad:" The sheep you want is inside!" (page 6) Now the "Little Prince" was delighted.
At this point of the story I was very surprised and asked myself:
Who is the "Little Prince" and where does he come from?

(216 words)