In the last chapter the narrator writes briefly about how his life has been changed by knowing the Little Prince. And he asks us whether things aren’t different for us as well.
I’ve read The Little Prince many times, and I can tell you that the more I read it, the more deeply it impresses my thinking. It challenges my own “grown-up” attitudes about what is important. I hope that in some ways my life is different because of the Little Prince, but to be honest I’d say the changes have been small, if they can even be measured.
Still, each reading stirs my thoughts, and perhaps someday I’ll catch up the Little Prince myself.
The Little Prince dies.
As his certain death approaches, he accepts it and even seeks it, as if he goes to a better place. The narrator, on the other hand, is frightened and desperate, unwilling to let go, unwilling to “bear the thought of never hearing that laugh again.” At one point he holds the weakened Little Prince in his arms, and it seems to him like the Little Prince is “dropping into an abyss,” and he can do “nothing to hold him back.”
There is the absolute futility in the face of death, and the terror at the approaching emptiness of the one left behind. But the Little Prince is confident and reassuring, because he knows that this is not the end. He tells the narrator that when he sees the Little Prince’s body, it will appear to be dead, but that is a lie. He is simply moving on to a place that is too far away, and his body is “too heavy” for the journey. It will be like an “abandoned shell. There’s nothing sad about an abandoned shell.”
I’ve never held a dying friend, but I can imagine, even with my own confidence in the resurrection, how impotent I would feel. And perhaps someday someone will hold me in their arms when I’m passing. I hope then that I have a confidence in Jesus that can give the one I leave behind reassurance and hope.
By now the narrator seems to have caught up with the Little Prince, and in the scene at the well their discussion reveals that they both share the fox’s understanding of what is essential. The narrator has learned to “see with his heart,” and he is no longer as concerned about fixing his airplane as he is about this friend.
Although the narrator is happy, savoring these moments with the Little Prince, he is confused because he also feels sad and he doesn’t know why. He is only beginning to comprehend that the Little Prince is leaving him. Deep inside he must know, though he is not even conscious of it, that he will never see his friend again. And he closes the chapter with a telling reflection:
You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed.
(more…)
The narrator comes back onto the stage and says that he has just finished his last drop of water when the Little Prince finishes his story about the sales clerk. Now the narrator is again concerned about his life, but the Little Prince apparently has a different set of priorities. When the narrator says they are likely to die of thirst, the Little Prince responds,
It’s good to have had a friend, even if you’re going to die.
The narrator thinks to himself that the Little Prince doesn’t comprehend the danger – then something strange happens: the Little Prince looks at him and answers his thought: “I’m thirsty, too … Let’s find a well.” (more…)
Click here to hear the fox’s secret in Creole:
“Mi gaan” Faks se “An sii fi-mi siicrit ya… i wel simpl : wi ongl sii gud wid fi-wi haat. Wa riili mata, yu no tek aiy sii i”
You can hear samples of The Little Prince read in several languages at this site.
And you can find editions of the book translated into many, many languages here.
The Little Prince meets a salesclerk who offers him a pill that quenches his thirst. All he has to do is swallow one a week and he will never have to drink. The point? “Experts have calculated that you can save fifty-three minutes a week.”
The Little Prince says to himself, “If I had fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked … I’d walk very slowly toward a water fountain…” (more…)
Chapters 22 and 23 are short and parallel the Little Prince’s earlier visits to the king, the vain man, the drunkard, and the businessman. But now the Little Prince is traveling on earth, and he meets a railway switchman. The switchman sorts travelers “into bundles of a thousand” and dispatches the trains that carry them, “sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left.” (more…)
I think this is the longest chapter of the book, and I think it is my favorite. There are many, many gems to reflect on, and I will only glance at a few. I hope you will spend more time with this chapter yourself – or perhaps it would be better for you to discuss it with a friend….
The Little Prince meets the fox, who will teach him the most important lessons of his life. The first lesson is about the process of taming. (more…)
The Little Prince somehow finds in the desert a rose garden, and sees 5,000 flowers that appear to be just like the flower he left behind on his planet. She had told him that she was the only one of her kind, so he is disillusioned. Because he is looking only on the surface and does not understand what makes his flower unique, and because he is is only thinking of himself, he falls into a pathetic bout of self-pity. He says to himself,
I thought I was rich because I had just one flower, and all I own is an ordinary rose.
And the Little Prince weeps because he isn’t “much of a prince.” This is an ugly scene in the book, and a defect in the Little Prince’s character. But it is realistic, and it is important for us to see how he learns and grows in later chapters.
The Little Prince climbs a high peak from which he hopes to be able to “get a view of the whole planet and all the people on it… But he saw nothing but rocky peaks as sharp as needles.” He is clearly on a quest for friendship, but he is disappointed yet again. He cries out from the peak, but is only answered by an echo which mocks him. (more…)