THE LITTLE PRINCE: FREE ONLINE STUDY GUIDE / LITERARY ANALYSIS CONFLICT Protagonist

The protagonist of the short novel is the Little Prince. He is a simple, yet mystical, creature from asteroid B-612. One day a seed arrives on his planet and blooms into a beautiful flower. Though the flower is lovely, it is vain and irritates the Prince. Finally he leaves his planet, to escape the flower. After visiting several asteroids, the Little Prince reaches Earth, where he meets the narrator in the Sahara Desert.

Antagonist
The problem, or antagonist, of the Little Prince is his thirst for answers. He visits many planets and meets many people, whom he questions about life. In particular, he wants to understand the existence and pastimes of adults on Earth. He tries to find his answers from a snake, a fox, and the narrator.

Climax
The climax of the plot occurs when the Little Prince decides to return to his planet and care for his special flower. He has learned from the fox that the important things in life cannot be seen with the eye, only felt with the heart. This lesson eventually makes the Little Prince realize that the flower from which he has fled is really very special. After meeting the narrator and explaining all that he has learned since he left his planet, the Prince accepts that he really loves the flower because she is his responsibility, and he has invested time and trouble in her survival. As a result, he decides that he must go back to his star to take care of his special rose.

Outcome
The story ends in comedy. The Little Prince finds the answers to his questions about what is important in life. When he realizes his love for the flower, he accepts that he must return to his star to care for the rose. He makes arrangements with the poisonous snake to bite him, which will insure his safe passage back home. Before he departs, the Little Prince makes a profound impression on the narrator.

SHORT SUMMARY (Synopsis)

The narrator begins the tale with an explanation of his dislike of adults; he claims he does not enjoy them, for they are much too practical. Instead, he prefers the company of children, who are natural and curious. The narrator next tells of how his plane crashed in the desert, where he met the Little Prince, a mystical creature from another planet. The narrator tells why the Prince left his planet and where he visited before coming to Earth. His adventures on six different planets are recounted, including the encounters with the king, the conceited man, the tippler, the businessman, the lamplighter, the geographer, the snake, the desert flower, the garden of roses, the railway switchman, the merchant, the fox, and the narrator. The narrator and the Prince share a rewarding relationship on the desert, and when the Little Prince departs, the narrator misses his company. He writes the novel in memory of the Little

Prince.

THEMES Major Themes

In The Little Prince, Saint-Exupry explains the importance of seeing the whole truth in order to find beauty. He believes that visible things are only shells that hint at the real worth hidden inside. He points out that man has not learned to look beneath the surface, or perhaps, has forgotten how to do so. Because adults never look inside, they will never know themselves or others. All his life, Saint-Exupry thought that grown-ups cared mostly about inconsequential matters, such as golf and neckties. When they talked about important matters, they always became dull and boring. They seemed afraid to open up their hearts to the real issues of life; instead, they chose to function on a surface level. In the book, the fox teaches that one can see only what is important in life by looking with the heart. Because of this lesson, Saint-Exupry leaves the desert as a different person. He has accepted the Little Prince's thought that 'the stars are beautiful because of a flower that cannot be seen. In essence, the foxs lesson is about how to love, a most important lesson for everybody to learn. The fox points out that it is the time that one wastes on someone or something that makes it important. The fox also tells the readers that love can overcome existentialism: One only knows the things that one tames.... Men buy things already made in the stores. But as there are no stores where friends can be bought, men no longer have friends. A human must earn a friendship, not buy it. Finally, Saint-Exupry explains how all joy and pleasure must be earned, not given or received. As an example, he shows the joy that the Little Prince and the pilot feel when they taste the water from the well. Its sweetness comes from their journey under the stars and the work of the pilots arms making the pulley sing. In the end, the Little Prince again experiences a new joy. Leaving his shell behind, he has gone to the most beautiful place he can imagine -- his star, which is his love; he has returned to his own little heaven.

Minor Themes
Saint-Exupry scorns mans obsession with the wrong things, such as wealth, power, and technology; he uses the King, the Businessman, and the Lamplighter to highlight this theme. The king puts a great deal of importance into being obeyed, even though he orders only what would happen anyway. The businessman takes great pride in owning all the stars, but he is too busy counting them to gain any pleasure from their beauty. The Little Prince tries to teach him the pointlessness of his property. The Little Prince also scorns the Lamplighters fascination with science and technology. He is so caught up in the importance of lighting his lamp, that he misses what is important in life. The need to have faith is another minor theme in the book. The Little Prince arrives on the Earth during a spiritually troubled phase and stays until he has resolved his confusions. During his stay, he teaches the narrator the importance of having faith and belief. Many critics have called the Little Prince a Christ-figure, for he is described as being free of sin. He also believes in a life after death. At the end of the book, he returns to his star, his heaven.

MOOD
The mood is mostly adventurous and mysterious, with a philosophical overtone. At first the Little Prince does not reveal his identity, creating an initial sense of mystery. Then as the Little Prince recounts his travels, the mood becomes adventurous. As he questions the fox and the

narrator, the mood becomes philosophic. At the end, when the Prince arranges to be bitten by the snake, the mood again becomes mysterious. Although he seems to die from the snake bite, the narrator cannot find the Princes body when he looks for it the next morning. He can only assume that the Prince successfully returns to his star.

The Little Prince

This is the story of a prince who lives on a small planet. The unnamed narrator encounters the little prince when he crashes his plane in the Sahara Desert. The narrator sets about repairing his plane, when he hears a little voice asking him to draw him a sheep. The narrator turned and saw the little prince. The narrator learned that the prince came from a planet so small that he could watch the sunset whenever he liked, just by turning around. The reason he wanted the sheep was that sheep eat little bushes. He wanted the sheep to eat the baobabs that were such a problem on his planet. The narrator pointed out that baobabs are large trees, but the prince pointed out that they started out little. However, the prince grew concerned, because sheep eat flowers too, and the prince had a very special flower on his planet, one he loved very much. The flower, though beautiful and sweet-smelling, was vain and demanding. Though naively unafraid of tigers, believing that her thorns would protect her, she demanded that the prince up a screen to shield her from drafts. She told him to put her under a glass globe at night to protect her from the cold. Though the prince loved her, he grew tired of listening to her words and her demands, so he left his planet. Before arriving on earth, the prince visited many planets. A king lived on the first planet he visited. The king was happy to have a subject. The king demanded obedience. He tried to get the prince to stay, but the prince left, pondering the strangeness of grown-ups. A conceited man occupied the second planet. The conceited man wanted the prince to clap for him and salute him, and he asked the little prince if he admired him. The prince grew tired of this, and as he left, he was more convinced than ever the grown-ups were very strange. A drunk occupied the third planet. The prince asked why he drank. The drunk replied that he drank so that he could forget he was ashamed of drinking. The fourth planet was occupied by a businessman who did nothing but count stars, saying he owned all of them. The prince thought that these men were as odd as the others. The fifth planet was the smallest, and it was occupied only by a lamplighter, whose job it was to light the lone street lamp. The prince thought that at least his job had some meaning. However, the lamp lighter was exhausted, saying that his job used to be much better. He lit the street lamp at night and put it out in the morning, giving him the rest of the day off, and he could sleep all night. However, the planet started turning faster and faster. A day lasted only one minute, so he was constantly lighting the lamp and putting it out again. The prince sorry to leave this planet, however, since the short days meant it had lots of sunsets. The sixth planet was much larger and occupied by a geographer. However, he was unable to tell the little prince anything about his own planet, since he was not an explorer. He asked the prince to tell him about his planet instead. The prince said it wasnt very interesting, since it was so small. The geographer advised the little prince to visit earth. When the prince visited earth, he didnt see any people at first. He kept walking and eventually came upon a rose garden. He was very sad to realize that his flower, whom he had thought was completely unique, was only a common rose like all those in the garden. Then he met the fox. He asked the fox to play with him, but the fox said he couldnt, since the fox was not tame, which the prince didnt understand. The fox explained what he meant, and said that if he wanted a friend, the prince should tame him. Then they would form a bond, and be unique to each other. The prince realized that his rose had tamed him. He came to see the fox every day, sitting a little closer each day, until the fox was tamed and they became friends. When the prince moved on, the fox told him he was responsible for his rose, since he had tamed it. The prince realized hhe needed to go home to take care of his rose. The narrator was very sad, but the prince said theyd always be friends and that whenever the narrator looked at the stars, hed think of the prince. In his travels, the prince learns what it means to love someone. He realizes how important his rose is to him even though she is difficult at times. The people who live alone on the planets the prince visits seem to be a metaphor for the loneliness and isolation among adults. The king, the conceited man, and so on get locked into one way of seeing themselves and interacting with the few people they encounter, and they are unable to genuinely reach out. They have retained none of the open-mindedness they may have had as children.

The prince comes away from the whole experience believing that loving someone, though it may make you sad sometimes, is worth the pain.