The Little Prince (C1)
Books of The Little Prince, from squarespace
The Little Prince taught me what is love, what it means to be loved, and how to find love
At the beginning, I need to mention that I have many thoughts about The Little Prince, I will discuss it in two articles. This is chapter one.
The Little Prince, a story that remains influential even after 84 years, is an “adult fairy tale.” Most people know its story to some extent—whether through the book or the film—and everyone tends to have their own interpretation of it. After all, there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes. In my view, The Little Prince is not only a romantic and sorrowful story; it is also a “beginner’s guide” that teaches us how to love.
Not Understanding Love
The story begins when a pilot crash-lands in the Sahara Desert. Surrounded by nothing but empty wilderness, he tries to repair his airplane. During this time, he meets a little blond boy who tells him his name is the Little Prince. He comes from a very distant tiny planet and has arrived on Earth after a long journey. As the pilot works on fixing his plane, he listens to the Little Prince recount his past.
At first, the Little Prince explains that he comes from a small planet called B-612, so tiny that one could walk around it in just a few steps. On that planet there are three volcanoes, a little sheep, the beautiful sunrises and sunsets that the Little Prince loves to watch, and also the troublesome baobab trees. One day, a rose grows from the ground. The Little Prince falls in love with this rose. Every day he waters her, protects her from the wind and rain, and cares for her with great devotion. The rose also loves the Little Prince.
However, the rose is too proud and does not know how to express her love properly. She often says things that hurt him. The Little Prince does not understand the deeper meaning behind her words; he only hears what she says on the surface. This leaves him deeply hurt. Eventually, the Little Prince leaves his planet—almost as if escaping—by joining a flock of migrating wild birds.
Isn’t the ending of our first innocent loves often similar to that of the Little Prince and the rose? In the book, because of the Little Prince’s innocence and inexperience, he often feels helpless when facing the proud and contradictory rose. He cannot understand the love hidden beneath her conflicting words.
Film still from the movie The Little Prince, from google
She says she has four thorns to protect herself from being eaten by tigers, and the Little Prince honestly replies that tigers do not eat flowers. What he does not realize is that the rose simply wants him to praise her. The rose says she hates the wind and asks the Little Prince to find her a screen to block it. The Little Prince feels confused—why would a flower hate the wind? What he does not know is that the rose only wants to see whether he is willing to care for her and make an effort for her. The rose even coughs deliberately in front of the Little Prince, which makes him think she is being overly dramatic. Yet he does not realize that she is simply hoping he will care more about her.
At the beginning, we are all too young. In relationships, girls often do not express their feelings directly, while boys are not always good at understanding the deeper meaning behind their words. Boys may not realize that her playful complaints come from caring, while girls may not understand that his thinking can be as straightforward as a steel bar (a humorous remark from the author, since I myself am a very straightforward person). Because neither side truly understands or compromises with the other, the relationship gradually moves toward misunderstanding and hurt. In the end, the relationship begins hastily and ends just as hastily. Just like the Little Prince in the story, who leaves his planet—almost as if escaping—by riding on migrating wild birds and leaving the rose behind.
Film still from the movie The Little Prince, from google
Exploring Love
After leaving his planet, the Little Prince travels through six small asteroids and meets six strange adults: a king who pursues power, a vain man obsessed with admiration, a drunkard trapped in his own contradictions, a businessman who only cares about immediate profit, a lamplighter who endlessly lights and extinguishes lamps, and a dogmatic geographer.
Each of them is self-centered and only cares about what they personally value. In doing so, they have lost the ability to love. Through observing these adults, the Little Prince begins to understand what the world might be like without love.
Do these six strange adults seem familiar to you? Every day, we may pass people like them on the street. Those who constantly pursue power or already hold it, those who are vain, those who numb themselves with alcohol, those who are overwhelmed by chasing wealth, those who work endlessly but cannot find meaning in life, and those with rigid, stubborn ideas—they all exist on the planet where we live: Earth. And this is also the final planet that the Little Prince eventually arrives at.
Understanding Love
After arriving on Earth, the first creature the Little Prince meets is a snake. The snake tells him that it can help him return to his distant home and that he can come find it whenever he needs help. After that, the Little Prince begins to travel around the Earth.
One day, he climbs to the top of a high mountain and calls out toward the distance, but the only reply he receives is an echo. Later, the Little Prince accidentally discovers a rose garden filled with five thousand roses. This makes him realize that the rose on his planet is not the only one in the world.
Soon after, the Little Prince meets a fox. The Little Prince wants to play with him, but the fox says he cannot because the Little Prince has not yet tamed him. The fox then teaches the Little Prince how to tame him, and the two eventually become good friends. Through the fox’s lesson, the Little Prince understands that his relationship with the rose follows the same principle: the rose was originally just an ordinary flower, but it became special because of the time, care, and love the Little Prince devoted to it.
Film still from the movie The Little Prince, from google
By the time the Little Prince finishes telling his story, a week has passed. The pilot has run out of water, so the two of them decide to search for some together. The next morning, they finally find a well. After drinking the water, the Little Prince tells the pilot that he will leave Earth that very night and return to his planet. He asks the pilot not to come see him because it will look too painful.
That evening, however, the pilot cannot bear to stay away and goes to find him. There, he sees the Little Prince with the snake. It turns out that when the snake said it could help the Little Prince return home, it meant that it would bite him so that his spirit could return to his planet.
Under the starry sky, the Little Prince tells the pilot that he wants to give him a gift—the stars in the sky. He says that he will live on one of them. In that way, whenever the pilot looks up at the night sky, it will seem as if all the stars are laughing. “You—only you—will have stars that can laugh.”
After saying this, the Little Prince turns and walks toward the desert. The pilot only sees a flash of yellow at the Little Prince’s ankle, and then the Little Prince slowly falls to the ground.
And so, the story comes to an end.
To be continued…
