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Aaron Angelo M. Umali

T. Leilah M. Tuazon

Grade 10 English

April 27, 2023

Growing Up: The Paradox of The Little Prince

The wonderful carefree nature of one’s childhood. Times where everything was simpler,

struggles yet to have arisen, and joyous moments are all that ever gets processed in our minds.

As children, we are able to look past certain things that would allow us, in turn, to access other

things that would pique our interests. On the other hand, as we grow older and start to experience

the harsh realities of life, we start to think more rationally, and most of us start to lose that

unapologetic curiosity. Though the story focuses on child-likeness and remembering the joys and

curiosity of one’s childhood, through the story’s imagery and each of the main characters’

internal conflicts, “The Little Prince” by Antoine de-Saint Exupery perfectly encompasses the

idea that, as we continue to garner knowledge and go through more and more experiences, most

of us inevitably end up losing that curiosity. The book conveys to the reader this aspect of the

little prince as he continues to learn and “grow”, as well as when the aviator experiences first

hand the little prince’s antics, and as he narrates the experiences of the little prince to the reader.

He himself continues to remember and reminisce on his own curiosity and the way he viewed

things as a young boy.

The book begins with the aviator recollecting and narrating his experiences of drawing as

a child. His crude and simple illustrations depict various ideas in which he found interest in. His

legitimate and pure curiosity brought him happiness, and he realized that. However when he
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presented his “masterpieces” to the adults, they would not share the same sentiment. The

grown-ups’ response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors

. . . and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar (Saint-Exupéry, 3)

This line, inevitably, triggered him to veer away from pursuing drawing. However, his curiosity

would not meet its end, as he would eventually become an aviator, free to fly and explore the

open skies, and visit places he could only imagine, in a sense, he was able to be curious. Curious

he may be at heart, but his mind was already full of the adults’ way of thinking, him being one as

well. It is not until he meets the little prince that he is reminded of his pure, unapologetic

curiosity that he once had the pleasure of experiencing.

As we look past the opening few chapters of the book, we get to be much more

acquainted with the little prince as he hops from planet to planet with the help of a flock of

migrating birds, which itself symbolizes the out-of-this world curiosity that is not grounded in

fact and logic, but lets one’s mind be free and imagine. There are many questions asked by the

little prince throughout his planet-hopping journey to the various men he found amusingly

intriguing. The first strange man the prince visited was the king, to which the prince had

wondered about what the king was truly ruling over. For his planet was so small, and had no one

to rule over. Through whatever the King requests, this one thought has filled the prince’s mind.

The little prince then moved on to the conceited man’s island, in which he found astonishment in

the man’s queer hat, and then expressed his puzzlement through a flurry of questions as to why

the tippler made his choices. Much the same for his encounters with the businessman,

lamplighter, and the geographer, the little prince has not once faltered to show his child-likeness,

even until landing on Earth, and exploring its vast reaches.

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The little prince’s encounter with the roses, the fox, and the snake however, shows a little

crack in his unapologetic curiosity, in the sense that he starts coming to more grounded

realizations, and begins to think more rationally as a result of what he learns from the three.

Depth is now mixed in with his one-dimensional mind, seeing some of the struggles of life, as

the fox says Nothing is perfect (Saint-Exupéry, 51). Reaching the latter parts of the book, his

interaction with the snake has caused him to identify his goal and purpose for going on his

adventure, and leaving his beloved rose behind on their asteroid. For once, the little prince

contemplated not his own curiosity, but on a matter of consequence, his responsibility. This

would not be the last of the prince’s uncharacteristic actions, for as he stumbles upon the aviator

and his crashed aircraft, seemingly his normal child-like self, he bears something in him that he

must not let his new friend know of. The two characters’ paths collide and they start spending

day after day in each other's company.

The aviator notices the prince’s child-like nature through their bickering and the prince’s

never-ending onslaught of queries. He sees the pure joy on the prince’s face as he says anything

interesting, the amusement when he does something seemingly uninteresting, and gets reminded

of when he was a kid, not afraid of what others might say or think about him, but instead

following his heart and what he wants to do. Being an artist was his passion, and he gets brought

back to that state of light-hearted creativity and curiosity, and gets reminded of when he depicted

the boa constrictor both inside and out as it devours an elephant, the sense of not caring, nor

having to, and being free to do what your mind or heart desires. Nearing the end of their short

time together, the little prince sits atop a wall. The aviator overheard his conversation with the

snake, though initially startled, he went over to question the prince, but all for nothing. The

prince was already set to go back to his asteroid by means of the snake, but when it was finally
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time to return, the little prince hesitated, his second break in character. Continuing to chat and

speak non-stop until that moment.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eyes

(Saint-Exupéry, 54) The little prince and the aviator go their separate ways, but through their

time together, they have both seen what was important to them in the end. For the prince, it was

having to face his responsibility and go back to his rose, and for the aviator, to protect the prince,

treating him like something he could never part with, and that something he could never part

with? His childhood. The joys of not caring for anything but yourself, the joy curiosity brings as

he explores his interests, the joys art brought him as a mere boy. The joys of his past.

Works Cited

Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de. The Little Prince. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943. Print.