By Julianne Francesca P. Berse
“If you look at the stars, you’ll remember I could be among them instead. It’ll be as if I had given you, instead of stars, tiny little lights that know how to laugh.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
This story may change you. Or it may not. It depends on whether or not you have already become an indifferent grownup, unable to wrap your mind around the underlying wisdom children often carry with them.
The Little Prince is a well-known and well-loved story, enjoyed by adults and children alike. It somehow unites the worlds of grownups and kids in a very unlikely way.
First published in 1943, author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a pilot born in the 1900s, chose to narrate the story not through the titular character but through the others.
Saint-Exupéry used boa constrictors, elephants, overly analytical scientists, clown outfits, and even asteroids to give a hint on the main character’s childhood, including how wide-eyed curious children view a world seemingly full of gray and materialistic grownups.
Younger readers may find this story relatable, while adults may feel offended which is not surprising at all. The book helps the readers reflect on how much they have grown up and lost touch with their younger selves.
The narrator of the story, the pilot, who has crashed on a desert and is left with supplies that can barely last him a week is hopeless and lonely, until a child, whose appearance seems unfazed by the drought and endless horizon, walks up to him and asks to be drawn a sheep.
Though unsure of the situation, the pilot grabs a pencil, and after several attempts, the young boy approves his drawing of a sheep in a crate. At least that is what the boy sees from the made-out-of-spite crate, which was supposed to be a box. Apparently, a child’s imagination can see more than that. The confused pilot is pleased with the creativeness of the boy, whose outfit is just like that of a little prince.
The boy came from an asteroid with three volcanoes, one spoiled rose, and countless annoying weeds that carelessly sprung out from the ground. One day, he decided to leave his own small world to discover the other worlds out there, pretty much like a child going out to school for the first time.
As the pilot and the little prince journey further, they form an unlikely friendship. The stories they share are heartfelt enough to touch one’s inner child.
The little prince shares his voyage to Earth and six other planets, including the people he had met in the latter: a king obsessed with power, a conceited man, a drunkard, a greedy businessman, a workaholic lamplighter, and a geographer who has never been anywhere. Each of these men lived in isolation.
When the little prince reached planet Earth, he says he found billions of the same odd men he had met, but all clumped together. This shows us the reality of a harsh and materialistically driven world where adults share similar foolish goals and interests.
However, Earth is not all that bad. In it the little prince encounters a fox, who taught him patience as he tamed it. He learns how numbers and value cannot weigh the scales for something truly important. That it is the heart and the lingering moments after that define how you remember a particular event. That even if a single rose would be set against gardens of flowers, it would still be the only rose he owned because he has cared and tended for it.
In the same vein, even if there are plenty of foxes out there, the little prince has only tamed and befriended one. This realization may seem childish, but it is the truth. No one can measure the small things in life.
The little prince tells its readers how much more sentimental and significant are the ties one cannot see nor hear. It reflects the sad reality of the world then and now, that people, like the men he had met on the six planets, tend to outgrow their childish, true, soulful, and loving nature, and forget how it was to view the world and the small things in life with the enthusiasm of a child.
Unexpectedly, it is that enthusiasm that we need in order to find our true purpose in life. This story ends on that note. The little prince leaves the pilot, but the boy’s brief presence on Earth made him feel whole, sentimental, and foolish for growing up (figuratively).
Like that pilot, sometimes we just need a certain someone to remind us of the little joys in our lives, and show us exactly how rich we are just by having these.
The author is a 13-year-old incoming Grade 9 student at Miriam College. She loves to play the piano, sketch, and write.