The Little Prince

Why does Saint-Exupéry open the book with Drawing Number One — a boa constrictor digesting an elephant that adults see as a hat? What does this 'test' establish about the book's epistemology?

The prince watches forty-four sunsets in one day because he is sad. Why does Saint-Exupéry express grief through repetition rather than description? What does this technique achieve that direct emotional language wouldn't?

The baobab trees destroy small planets if not uprooted early. The book was published in 1943, during WWII. What is the political allegory, and does identifying it reduce or enrich the scene?

The prince says he 'ought to have judged her by her deeds and not by her words.' Is this advice the book itself follows? Do the book's OTHER characters — the fox, the snake, the pilot — match their words to their deeds?

Each asteroid inhabitant represents a type of adult failure: power, vanity, addiction, materialism, duty, knowledge. Which of these does the modern world reward most? Which does it punish? What does this say about whether the book's critique has been heard?

The lamplighter is the only adult the prince does not find ridiculous, because 'he is thinking of something else besides himself.' But the lamplighter is also the most miserable. Is Saint-Exupéry saying that selflessness leads to suffering? Is that a critique or a celebration?

The geographer calls flowers 'ephemeral' and refuses to record them. The prince hears this as a death sentence for his rose. Who is right — the geographer who dismisses the temporary, or the prince who values it BECAUSE it is temporary?

The fox's central lesson — 'What is essential is invisible to the eye' — has become one of the most quoted sentences in world literature. Has overquotation drained it of meaning? Can a cliche still be true?

The fox says 'It is the time you have wasted on your rose that makes your rose important.' Why does he use the word 'wasted'? How does this word choice challenge the businessman's and merchant's definition of value?

The snake offers to 'send the prince back to the earth from whence he came.' In the Western tradition, the serpent is the agent of the Fall. How does Saint-Exupéry's snake invert or complicate that tradition?

Saint-Exupéry drew the illustrations himself — amateurish watercolors that look like a child's work. Why not hire a professional illustrator? What do the 'bad' drawings add that good ones couldn't?

The book was written in exile in New York while France was occupied by Nazis. It is dedicated to Léon Werth, a Jewish friend hiding in France, 'when he was a little boy.' Why does Saint-Exupéry dedicate a book about childhood to a man in mortal danger?

The prince discovers five thousand roses identical to his own and weeps because his rose 'lied' about being unique. But did she lie? Is uniqueness a property of objects or of relationships?

Compare The Little Prince to Voltaire's Candide. Both send a naive traveler through a series of absurd encounters. Candide concludes 'we must cultivate our garden.' The Little Prince concludes 'you are responsible for your rose.' How do these endings differ philosophically?

The pilot says the water from the desert well tasted different because it 'was born of the walk beneath the stars, the song of the pulley, the effort of my arms.' Is this objectively true? Does effort actually change the taste of water — or only the experience of drinking it?

The prince allows the snake to bite him to 'return home.' Is this suicide, transcendence, or something the book refuses to categorize? How does the ambiguity serve the story?

The book has been translated into over 300 languages. What about its language makes it so translatable? Are there elements that CANNOT survive translation?

The prince tells the pilot: 'When you look at the sky at night, all the stars will be laughing.' After the prince is gone, does this gift comfort the pilot or torment him? Can the same thing be both?

Saint-Exupéry was an aristocrat writing about a prince. The book's villains are a king, a businessman, a vain man — types from different social classes. Is this a democratic critique or an aristocratic one? Does it matter?

The drunkard drinks to forget the shame of drinking. Name a modern equivalent of this perfect closed loop. Why are addiction cycles so difficult to represent in literature, and how does Saint-Exupéry succeed in three sentences?

The rose says: 'I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.' She says this as the prince is leaving. What does this reveal about her growth — and about the timing of wisdom?

The book ends with a request: 'If you should come upon this spot, please do not hurry by. Wait for a time... And if a little man appears, write to me at once.' Why does Saint-Exupéry break the fourth wall and speak directly to the reader?

Compare the prince's rose to Gatsby's green light. Both are objects of obsessive devotion that may or may not deserve it. How does each book treat the relationship between the lover and the beloved? Which view of love is more honest?

Saint-Exupéry disappeared over the Mediterranean on July 31, 1944 — fifteen months after publishing The Little Prince. The prince disappears over the desert. His body is never found. Is it possible to read the book without reading it as the author's farewell?

The fox's taming ritual requires the prince to come at the same time every day, to sit closer each day, and not to speak. Why these specific rules? What do regularity, proximity, and silence have to do with love?

The merchant sells pills that save fifty-three minutes per week by eliminating thirst. The prince says he would spend those fifty-three minutes walking to a spring. Who is right — and what is the real thing being 'saved' or 'spent'?

The narrator says he has lived among grown-ups and seen them 'at close range,' and it has not much improved his opinion of them. Is The Little Prince anti-adult? Or is it trying to recover something in adults that was lost?

The prince's planet has three volcanoes, two active and one extinct. He cleans all three. 'One never knows,' he says. What does the extinct volcano represent, and what does it mean to tend something that appears dead?

The Little Prince has been called 'the world's most beloved children's book that is not really for children.' Who is the ideal reader? At what age does the book hit hardest, and why?

If the prince returned to his rose and she was gone — eaten by the sheep in the box with three holes — would the book's philosophy survive? Is the book's optimism contingent on the rose's survival?