“The Little Prince”

(Book Review)
By Aquila Reyes
“The Little Prince” (Le Petit Prince), first published on 1943, was a novella of a grown-up
meeting his inner child which known as the little prince. It is written by a French aristocrat, writer, poet,
and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The story is worldwide known with its quote, “It is
only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Exupéry wrote this story not to be an ordinary children’s book but rather he wrote this to
persuade and open the eyes of many adults nowadays. This story is about a pilot stranded in the Sahara
desert who eventually meet the little prince who’s travelling from planet to planet to meet a friend. The
pilot narrates while the little prince tells him about his adventures. The author used symbolism and very
colorful illustrations in writing this story. In every planet that the little prince went to, he met different
persons with different personalities representing the adults nowadays. And as he tell the story to the
aviator, the story suddenly becomes a satire. It suddenly criticized the vices of many adults. The book all
in all discusses a claim of values by showing the philosophy of life as seen by a child.

This book argues about the issue of grown-ups’ behavior especially with their vices. The author
exemplified each vices by representing it with the different kind of characters the little prince
encountered. Their personalities symbolizes the vices of the adulthood. Up until now, these characteristics
were still present in us.

As the little prince travel from planet to planet, he met this kind of people wherein each
represents one personality of people nowadays. The king whom he first met symbolizes the government
or those people who were hungry for control and power. The second person he met was a conceited man
representing those who want nothing but admiration. The third one is the tippler who was ashamed of
himself that he drown himself by drinking alcohols. The fourth one is the businessman who symbolizes
those people who cares for nothing but money. The fifth one is the lamplighter who’s very hardworking
that he forgot to enjoy the things that he has. He is a person who thinks about others without thinking his
own. After the lamplighter, he met the geographer who studies the works of other persons without making
his own work. For me he represents those people who were dependent to other people.

These representations of persons were very true nowadays. I think the author wants to portray
this personalities to make us realize what we are now and how much we have changed from how we
really were. In my perception, the author wants to imply that we always look for something more and that
we don’t realize that these things didn’t really matter.

After reading this book, I realized that it has its dark side most especially on the last part when
the little prince let the snake bit him. For me this days, society let people take their own lives. The
expectations and the standard that takes up the whole society makes people killed by their own thoughts.
This is why I became fond of this book after reading it.

I also watched the movie of “The Little Prince”. It quite differs from the story in the book. It
focuses on how much we forget the way things were before and make us ask ourselves what happened to
our society. And just like how the story portrays, the society killed the imagination of many. Our society
now makes us think that whatever we do, we will always be not enough. Someone said that society is
funny. It asks us to be ourselves yet they still judge us. This serves as a wakeup call to each and every one
of us.
 And as the book implies, people nowadays were very much not like the way before. People tend
to want money, power and control more than anything. The Little Prince teaches us that we should start
caring about the intangible things than those materialistic things. This book is very wonderful to read but
honestly the book itself is very confusing. You need to think critically and analyze the story completely to
better understand it. The claims were exemplified by using symbols that makes the story be beyond its
meaning. The use of illustrations for me definitely attracts the readers to further read the story. For me
the methods the author used makes the story more colorful and exciting to read. The representation of
ideas were very relatable because the issue being focused was very common today.

For me this book really catches my heart because it seeks to wake up us all on what is really
happening to our world especially on the side of adults. As a senior high school student, this would be a
message and a reminder for me and my fellow to be aware on what we’re going to be as an adult in the
future. The Little Prince will definitely open our minds about some issues regarding adulthood especially
with their immorality. It will allow us to reflect and think on ways how can we avoid that. And Exupéry
taught me that the most beautiful things in our world were the things that cannot be seen by the eyes but
rather the things that can be felt by the heart.