The Little Prince
Book Report The Little Prince
The Little Prince was written by Antoine De Saint-Exupery and first published in 1943. The world has come to know this particular writing as a children’s fable. Judging by its cover, one could easily be mistaken by making the assumption that it is merely a children’s book and nothing more. This book actually has more in it than meets the eye. Throughout the book the author uses symbolism to get his messages across to the adult reader. With or without the embedded symbolism, this short novel is still a fascinating read for the young and the young at heart. The narrator is Saint-Exupery himself and as such is one of the major characters. Early in the book he explains his distaste for grown-ups and finds them to be rather boring with no taste for adventure. Saint-Exupery obviously has not lost his youthful zest for life and finds the adult world suffocating. To get above and beyond this suffocating world, he learns to fly airplanes and becomes a pilot. Here is where the story starts as the narrator-author begins telling the tale of the one time he found himself in the middle of the vast Sahara Desert. His airplane develops engine trouble and he successfully crash-lands only to find himself as he puts it, “a thousand miles from any inhabited country.” This is where we are introduced to the protagonist, the Little Prince. The Little Prince is a small fellow with a big mystery surrounding him. Almost immediately, the Little Prince asks the narrator to draw him a sheep. The narrator instead draws him a picture of a boa constrictor eating an elephant, since that’s the only thing he’s ever drawn. The Little Prince says to him that he doesn’t want a drawing of an elephant inside a boa constrictor. The narrator is shocked and amazed that the Little Prince could see the elephant inside the snake and here he hints at the idea that adults have trouble seeing the invisible side to things. At this point
The Little Prince was written by Antoine De Saint-Exupery and first published in 1943. The world has come to know this particular writing as a children’s fable. Judging by its cover, one could easily be mistaken by making the assumption that it is merely a children’s book and nothing more. This book actually has more in it than meets the eye. Throughout the book the author uses symbolism to get his messages across to the adult reader. With or without the embedded symbolism, this short novel is still a fascinating read for the young and the young at heart. The narrator is Saint-Exupery himself and as such is one of the major characters. Early in the book he explains his distaste for grown-ups and finds them to be rather boring with no taste for adventure. Saint-Exupery obviously has not lost his youthful zest for life and finds the adult world suffocating. To get above and beyond this suffocating world, he learns to fly airplanes and becomes a pilot. Here is where the story starts as the narrator-author begins telling the tale of the one time he found himself in the middle of the vast Sahara Desert. His airplane develops engine trouble and he successfully crash-lands only to find himself as he puts it, “a thousand miles from any inhabited country.” This is where we are introduced to the protagonist, the Little Prince. The Little Prince is a small fellow with a big mystery surrounding him. Almost immediately, the Little Prince asks the narrator to draw him a sheep. The narrator instead draws him a picture of a boa constrictor eating an elephant, since that’s the only thing he’s ever drawn. The Little Prince says to him that he doesn’t want a drawing of an elephant inside a boa constrictor. The narrator is shocked and amazed that the Little Prince could see the elephant inside the snake and here he hints at the idea that adults have trouble seeing the invisible side to things. At this point