It starts as a very playful, fanciful story: the adult narrator is disillusioned with the world of grown-ups, because whenever he shows them a picture he drew of a boa constrictor that had eaten an elephant, everyone thinks it is a hat. But one day, when he crashes his plane in the Sahara, he encounters a little boy in the middle of the desert who not only recognizes the drawing for what it is, but claims he came from an asteroid. As the narrator gets to know the boy more, he pieces together his history.
Unfortunately, the little prince's story is not without sadness. He has left behind a rose he cares about very much, and his travels since then have left him lost on the Earth, a planet much larger and more bewildering than the asteroids he is used to.
The strongest part of the book (other than the poignant ending) tells how the little prince tamed a fox, at the fox's request. As the fox pleads to be tamed, he delivers one of the most poetic discourses on love and friendship I have ever read:
"Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat..."
The Little Prince is about what truly matters in life - while the men the boy encounters are all rushing about concerned with "matters of consequence" such as buying and selling, doing jobs, ruling, running, and going back and forth, the fox tells the prince, "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye." The love between eternal souls shines sadly in this moving, personal allegory, the last work Saint-Exupéry wrote before his plane disappeared in World War II.
Arbitrary rating: 5 out of 5 matters of consequence
No comments:
Post a Comment