The Little Prince Study Guide

Setting

The book is not set in a particular period or in one specific place. In the first
chapter the narrator writes about his childhood experiences with drawings and
about his low opinion of adults. In the second chapter the narrator starts
narrating a particular series of incidents. He writes of the time when his plane
crashed in the desert of Sahara six years ago. Most of the narrative after the
second chapter is set in the desert. The other places that function as settings
include the asteroid where the Little Prince has his home and the planets that
the Little Prince visits, including asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, and 330. The
last planet that he visits is the Earth, where he meets the narrator in the
Sahara Desert. The story is really about the narrator’s friendship with the Little
Prince and about the Prince’s own quest, which takes him to seven planets
apart from his own.

Major Characters

The Narrator

The narrator is really the author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The reader hears
his voice throughout the book as he relates the story of the Little Prince and of
his own friendship with him. The narrator says plainly that he is a romantic
who does not like adults, whom he finds too practical; instead, he prefers
children, whom he finds natural and delightful. The narrator writes this story of
his encounter with the Little Prince in order to deal with the sorrow of losing
his precious friend.

The Little Prince

The novel is named after the Little Prince, who is a mystical and loveable
person. He is the sole inhabitant of a small planet, which the narrator refers to
as B-612. The Prince leaves his planet to visit other places and finally lands on
Earth. In the Sahara Desert, he meets the narrator and befriends him. The
narrator tells of his encounter with the Prince and also relates the adventures
of the Prince on the other asteroids that the latter has visited.
The Fox

The Little Prince meets the fox in the desert. The fox is a wise creature, which
teaches the Prince about the essence of life. After they become friends, the fox
asks the Little Prince to ‘tame him, which is what the latter does.

Minor Characters

The Turkish Astronomer

The narrator mentions the Turkish astronomer in the fourth chapter. The
narrator believes that the planet from which the Little Prince has come is the
asteroid known as B-612. A Turkish astronomer first sees this asteroid through
the telescope in 1909.

The Little Prince’s flower

On the Little Prince’s planet, the flowers are usually very simple; but one day,
from a seed blown from afar, a new flower comes up that is very beautiful, but
also very vain. The Prince begins to doubt the flower’s credibility and finally
leaves his planet to escape the company of the flower.

The King

The king is the sole inhabitant of asteroid 325, which the Little Prince visits
after leaving his own planet. The king insists upon his authority being
respected and does not tolerate disobedience; however, since he is a very
good man, he makes his orders reasonable. Just before the Prince leaves the
king’s planet, the latter makes the former an ambassador.

The Conceited Man

He is the inhabitant of asteroid 326. Totally conceited, he insists that everyone

else admire him. He does not listen to anything but praise and expects the
Little Prince to praise and admire him.

The Tippler

The tippler lives on asteroid 327. When the Prince asks him what he is doing,
the tippler replies that he is drinking to forget that he is ashamed of drinking.

The Businessman
The businessman sits and counts stars on asteroid 328. He thinks that he owns
the stars, making him rich. The Little Prince explains to the businessman that
he is of no use at all to the stars that he owns.

The Lamplighter

The lamplighter lives on asteroid 329 and does the job of lighting and then
putting out the lamplight. The lamplighter thinks that his is a terrible
profession, because once every minute he has to light the lamp, for his planet
makes a complete turn every sixty seconds. The Prince feels that the
lamplighter is the only one who could have been his friend.

The Geographer

The geographer lives on a planet that is ten times larger than the lamplighter’s
planet. He explains that he is a scholar who knows the location of all the seas,
rivers, towns, mountains, and deserts. He is the one who advises the Prince to
visit the planet Earth, as it has a good reputation.

The Snake

The first living thing that the Prince encounters on the planet Earth is a snake.
The snake tells him that it gets a little lonely among men. The Prince thinks
that the snake is very weak, but the snake tells him that he can kill a person.
The snake also says that he can solve all kinds of riddles.

The Desert Flower

The Prince meets a flower in the desert. It tells him that there are only six or
seven men in existence and that one never knows where to find them.
According to the flower, the wind blows the men away.

Garden of Roses

The Prince meets a garden of roses on the planet Earth. He is overcome with
sadness on seeing them because there are five thousand of them in a single
garden. His flower has told him that it was the only one of its kind in the
universe. He cries when he realizes that his flower has lied to him.

Railway Switchman
The Prince meets the railway switchman on Earth. The switchman tells the
Prince that he sorts out travelers and sends off the trains that carry them. The
switchman also says that no one is ever satisfied with his position. During his
conversation with the switchman, the Prince tells him that only the children
know what they are looking for.

Merchant

The Prince asks the merchant why he sells pills that quench thirst. The
merchant answers that he sells them because they save a lot of time. The
Prince feels that he would rather use that time to walk at leisure toward a
spring of fresh water.

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The Little Prince Quotes

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that
one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for

children to be always and forever explaining things to them”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“It is such a mysterious place, the land of tears.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“But if you come at just any time, I shall never know at what hour my heart is
to be ready to greet you.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.”

― Antoine de Saint - Exupery

“C'est tellement mystérieux, le pays des larmes.”

― Antoine De Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

tags: le-petit-prince, mystery, tears, the-little-prince

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“Only the children know what they are looking for.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“One only understands the things that one tames,” said the fox. “Men have

no more time to understand anything. They buy things all ready made at the

shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so

men have no friends any more. If you want a friend, tame me. . .”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“Supposing I know of a flower that is absolutely unique, that is nowhere to be

found except on my planet, and any minute that flower could accidentally be
eaten up by a little lamb, isn't that important? If a person loves a flower that is
the only one of its kind on all the millions and millions of stars, then gazing at
the night sky is enough to make him happy. He says to himself "My flower is
out there somewhere." But if the lamb eats the flower, then suddenly it's as if
all the stars had stopped shining. Isn't that important?”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“What a queer planet!" he thought. "It is altogether dry, and altogether

pointed, and altogether harsh and forbidding. And the people have no
imagination. They repeat whatever one says to them . . . On my planet I had a
flower; she always was the first to speak . . .”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“No one is ever satisfied where he is....Only the children know what they’re
looking for....”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible
to the eye.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“That is the most difficult thing of all. It is far more difficult to judge oneself
than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself correctly, then you are
truly a man of wisdom.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince & Letter to a Hostage

“If you love a flower which happens to be on a star, it is sweet at night to gaze
at the sky. All the stars are a riot of flowers.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets oneself be tamed...”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Of course I love you. It is my fault that you have not known it all the while"
(the flower to little prince)”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“If a sheep eats bushes does it eat flowers too?

A sheep eats whatever it finds.

Even a flower with thorn?

Even a flower with thorns.

Then what's the good of thorns?”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“You - you alone will have the stars as no one else has them...”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“For me you're only a little boy just like a hundred thousand other little boys.
And I have no need of you. And you have no need of me, either. For you I'm
only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, we'll need
each other. You'll be the only boy in the world for me. I'll be the only fox in the
world for you....”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be
content that you have known me.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“This is, to me, the loveliest and saddest landscape in the world. It is the same
as that on the preceding page, but I have drawn it again to impress it on your
memory. It is here that the little prince appeared on Earth, and disappeared.

Look at it carefully so that you will be sure to recognise it in case you travel
some day to the African desert. And, if you should come upon this spot, please
do not hurry on. Wait for a time, exactly under the star. Then, if a little man
appears who laughs, who has golden hair and who refuses to answer
questions, you will know who he is. If this should happen, please comfort me.
Send me word that he has come back.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“The little prince went back to look at the roses again.

"You're not at all like my rose. You're nothing at all yet," he told them. "No one
has tamed you and you haven't tamed anyone. You're the way my fox was. He
was just a fox like a hundred thousand others. But I've made him my friend,
and now he's the only fox in all the world."

And the roses were humbled.

"You're lovely, but you're empty," he went on. "One couldn't die for you. Of
course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my
rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she's the
one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass. Since she's the one I
sheltered behind a screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars
(except the two or three for butterflies.) Since she's the one I listened to when
she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said
nothing at all. Since she's my rose.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“I don't know anyone who can't learn something from The Little Prince.”

― Veronica Henry, How to Find Love in a Bookshop

“It's all a great mystery. For you, who love the little prince, too. As for me,
nothing in the universe can be the same if somewhere, no one knows where, a
sheep we never saw has or has not eaten a rose....
Look up at the sky. Ask yourself, "Has the sheep eaten the flower or not?" And
you'll see how everything changes....

And no grown-up will ever understand how such a thing could be so

important!”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“If I try to describe him here, it is to make sure that I shall not forget him. To
forget a friend is sad. Not every one has had a friend. And if I forget him, I may
become like the grown-ups who are no longer interested in anything but
figures...”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince (Firefly World Classic Fairy Tales
Bilingual Picture Book)

“That was how the little prince tamed the fox. And when the time was near:

"Ah!" the fox said. "I shall weep."

"It's your own fault," the little prince said. "I never wanted to do you any harm,
but you insisted that I tame you...."

"Yes, of course," the fox said.

"Then you get nothing out of it?"

"I get something," the fox said, "because of the color of the wheat." Then he
added, "Go look at the roses again. You'll understand that yours is the only
rose in all the world.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“I should have based my judgement upon deeds and not words.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“You must see to it that you

pull up regularly all the baobabs, at the very first moment when they can be

distinguished from the rosebushes which they resemble so closely in their

earliest youth”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince)

“If you tell grown-ups, 'I saw a beautiful red brick house, with geraniums at the
windows and doves on the roof...,' they won't be able to imagine such a house.
You have to tell them, 'I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs.' Then
they exclaim, 'What a pretty house!”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“As a newly acclaimed author in the literary world, Night Flight, or Vol de nuit,
was the first of Saint-Exupéry’s literary works and won him the prix Femina, a
French literary prize created in 1904. The novel was based on his experiences
as an early mail pilot and the director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline in
South America. Antoine is also known for his narrative The Little Prince and his
aviation writings, including the lyrical 1939 Wind, Sand and Stars, which is
Saint-Exupéry’s 1939 memoir of his experiences as a postal pilot. It tells how
on the week following Christmas in 1935, just a year after I was born, he and
his mechanic amazingly survived a crash in the Sahara desert. The two men
suffered dehydration in the extreme desert heat before a local Bedouin, riding
his camel, discovered them “just in the nick of time” to save their lives. His
biographies were quite hot for the time and divulged numerous affairs, most
notably with the Frenchwoman Hélène de Vogüé, known as “Nelly,” who was
referred to as “Madame de B.”

Photo Caption: Monument of Saint-Exupéry’s airplane in the Sahara desert.

Read these award winning books!”

― Captain Hank Bracker, "Seawater Two"