Familiar not only to children, but also to adults.
Saint-Exupery "The Little Prince" main characters
The main characters of the story " A little prince" This:
- The pilot - the story is told on his behalf
- A little prince - main character, who perceived the world around him completely differently. He was able to appreciate all its diversity and noticed the unusual in the most inconspicuous.
- Fox is a symbol of wisdom and knowledge of life
- Drunkard
- Lamplighter
- Baobab
- Dealer
- Rose is a symbol of beauty
- The snake is a symbol of wisdom and immortality
- Switchman
- Geographer
- An ambitious person is a person who strives for an honorable position and craves fame.
- King
- Turkish astronomer
- Business man
- Flower with three petals
A little prince- the main character of the work, a child living on asteroid B-12, symbolizes for the writer purity, selflessness, and a natural vision of the world.
Fox- this is a very important character, he helps to reveal the very essence of the philosophy of the entire fairy tale, helps to look into the very depths of the story. And it guides the plot.
The tamed fox and the insidious snake are important, plot-shaping heroes of this work. Their importance in the development of the narrative cannot be overestimated.
Characteristics of the Little Prince
The Little Prince is a symbol of man - a wanderer in the universe, looking for hidden meaning things and your own life. The soul of the Little Prince is not shackled by the ice of indifference and deadness. Therefore, a true vision of the world is revealed to him: he learns the value of true friendship, love and beauty. This is the theme of the “vigilance” of the heart, the ability to “see” with the heart, to understand without words. The little prince does not immediately comprehend this wisdom. He leaves his own planet, not knowing that what he will look for on different planets will be so close - on his home planet. The little prince is a man of few words - he says very little about himself and his planet. Only little by little, from random, casually dropped words, does the pilot learn that the baby has arrived from a distant planet, “which is the size of a house” and is called asteroid B-612. The little prince tells the pilot about how he is fighting with the baobab trees, which take such deep and strong roots that they can tear apart his little planet. You need to weed out the first shoots, otherwise it will be too late, “this is a very boring job.” But he has a “firm rule”: “...get up in the morning, wash your face, put yourself in order - and immediately put your planet in order.” People must take care of the cleanliness and beauty of their planet, together protect and decorate it, and prevent all living things from perishing. The little prince from Saint-Exupery's fairy tale cannot imagine his life without the love of gentle sunsets, without the sun. “I once saw the sun set forty-three times in one day!” - he says to the pilot. And a little later he adds: “You know... when it becomes very sad, it’s good to watch the sun go down...” The child feels like a part of the natural world, and he calls on adults to unite with it. The kid is active and hardworking. Every morning he watered Rose, talked with her, cleaned the three volcanoes on his planet so that they would provide more heat, pulled out weeds... And yet he felt very lonely. In search of friends, in the hope of finding true love, he sets off on his journey through alien worlds. He is looking for people in the endless desert that surrounds him, because in communication with them he hopes to understand himself and the world around him, to gain the experience that he so lacked. Visiting six planets in succession, the Little Prince on each of them encounters a certain life phenomenon embodied in the inhabitants of these planets: power, vanity, drunkenness, pseudo-learning... The images of the heroes of A. Saint-Exupery's fairy tale “The Little Prince” have their own prototypes. The image of the Little Prince is both deeply autobiographical and, as it were, removed from the adult author-pilot. He was born out of longing for little Tonio, who was dying within himself - a descendant of an impoverished noble family, who in his family was called the “Sun King” for his blond (at first) hair, and in college was nicknamed Lunatic for his habit of looking at starry sky. The phrase “The Little Prince” itself appears, as you probably noticed, in “Planet of People” (like many other images and thoughts). And in 1940, during breaks between battles with the Nazis, Exupery often drew a boy on a piece of paper - sometimes winged, sometimes riding on a cloud. Gradually, the wings will be replaced by a long scarf (which, by the way, the author himself wore), and the cloud will become asteroid B-612.
Characteristics of Rose “The Little Prince”
Rose was capricious and touchy, and the baby was completely exhausted with her. But “but she was so beautiful that it was breathtaking!”, and he forgave the flower for its whims. However, the Little Prince took the empty words of the beauty to heart and began to feel very unhappy. A rose is a symbol of love, beauty, and femininity. The little prince did not immediately discern the true inner essence of beauty. But after a conversation with the Fox, the truth was revealed to him - beauty only becomes beautiful when it is filled with meaning and content. “You are beautiful, but empty,” continued the Little Prince. - You won’t want to die for your sake. Of course, a random passerby, looking at my Rose, will say that she is exactly the same as you. But to me she is dearer than all of you...” Telling this story about Rose, the little hero admits that he didn’t understand anything then. “We were to be judged not by words, but by deeds. She gave me her scent and illuminated my life. I shouldn't have run. Behind these pitiful tricks and tricks one had to guess the tenderness. The flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young and didn’t know how to love yet!”
The prototype of the capricious and touching Rose is also well known; this is, of course, Exupery’s wife Consuelo - an impulsive Latina, whom her friends nicknamed “the little Salvadoran volcano.” By the way, in the original the author always writes not “Rose”, but “la Aeig” - flower. But in French it is a feminine word. Therefore, in the Russian translation, Nora Gal replaced the flower with a Rose (especially since in the picture it is really a Rose). But in the Ukrainian version there was no need to replace anything - “la fleur” easily became “kvggka”.
Characteristics of the Fox “The Little Prince”
Since ancient times in fairy tales, the Fox (not a fox!) has been a symbol of wisdom and knowledge of life. The Little Prince's conversations with this wise animal become a kind of culmination in the story, for in them the hero finally finds what he was looking for. The clarity and purity of consciousness that had been lost returns to him. The fox reveals to the baby the life of the human heart, teaches the rituals of love and friendship, which people have long forgotten and therefore lost their friends and lost the ability to love. No wonder the flower says ABOUT PEOPLE: “They are carried by the wind.” And the switchman is in a conversation with the main character, answering the question: where are people rushing? notes: “Even the driver himself doesn’t know this.” This allegory can be interpreted as follows. People have forgotten how to look at the stars at night, admire the beauty of sunsets, and enjoy the fragrance of the Rose. They submitted to the vanity of earthly life, forgetting about the “simple truths”: the joy of communication, friendship, love and human happiness: “If you love a flower - the only one that is no longer on any of the many millions of stars - that’s enough: you look at the sky and you feel happy." And it is very sad for the author to say that people do not see this and turn their lives into a meaningless existence. The fox says that for him the prince is only one of thousands of other little boys, just as he is for the prince only an ordinary fox, of which there are hundreds of thousands. “But if you tame me, we will need each other. You will be the only one for me in the whole world. And I will be alone for you in the whole world... if you tame me, my life will seem to be illuminated by the sun. I will begin to distinguish your steps among thousands of others...” The fox reveals to the Little Prince the secret of taming: to tame means to create bonds of love, unity of souls.
Regarding Fox, there were many disputes about prototypes and translation options. This is what translator Nora Gal writes in the article “Under the Star of Saint-Ex”: “When “The Little Prince” was published with us for the first time, there was a heated debate in the editorial office: the Fox in the fairy tale or the Fox - again feminine or male? Some people believed that the fox in the fairy tale was Rose’s rival. Here the dispute is no longer about one word, not about a phrase, but about the understanding of the entire image. Even more, to a certain extent, about understanding the entire fairy tale: its intonation, coloring, deep inner meaning - everything changed from this “little thing”. But I am convinced: a biographical note about the role of women in the life of Saint-Exupéry does not help to understand the fairy tale and is not relevant. Not to mention the fact that in French it is 1e hepags! male. The main thing is that in the fairy tale the Fox is, first of all, a friend. Rose is love, Fox is friendship, and the faithful friend Fox teaches the Little Prince fidelity, teaches him to always feel responsible for his beloved and for all his loved ones.” We can add one more observation. The unusually large ears of the Fox in Exupery's drawing are most likely inspired by the small desert fennec fox, one of the many creatures tamed by the writer while serving in Morocco.
If we discard dry calculations, then the description of “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry can be summed up in one word - miracle.
The fairy tale's literary roots lie in a wandering plot about a rejected prince, and its emotional roots lie in a child's view of the world.
(Watercolor illustrations made by Saint-Exupéry, without which a book simply cannot be published, since they and the book form a single whole fairy tale)
History of creation
The image of a pensive boy first appears in the form of a drawing in the notes of a French military pilot in 1940. Later, the author organically wove his own sketches into the body of the work, changing his view of illustration as such.
The original image crystallized into a fairy tale by 1943. At that time, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry lived in New York. Bitterness from the inability to share the fate of comrades fighting in Africa and longing for beloved France seeped into the text. There were no problems with the publication, and in the same year American readers became acquainted with The Little Prince, however, they received it coolly.
Together with English translation The original was also released in French. The book reached French publishers only three years later, in 1946, two years after the death of the aviator. The Russian-language version of the work appeared in 1958. And now “The Little Prince” has almost the largest number of translations - there are its publications in 160 languages (including Zulu and Aramaic). Overall volume sales exceeded 80 million copies.
Description of the work
The storyline is built around the travels of the Little Prince from the tiny planet B-162. And gradually his journey becomes not so much an actual movement from planet to planet, but rather a road to understanding life and the world.
Wanting to learn something new, the Prince leaves his asteroid with three volcanoes and one favorite rose. On the way he meets many symbolic characters:
- A ruler convinced of his power over all the stars;
- An ambitious person seeking admiration for himself;
- A drunkard drowning in drink, shame from addiction;
- A business man constantly busy counting the stars;
- the diligent Lamplighter, who lights and extinguishes his lantern every minute;
- A geographer who never left his planet.
These characters, along with the rose garden, the switchman and others, are the world modern society, burdened with conventions and responsibilities.
On the advice of the latter, the boy goes to Earth, where in the desert he meets the crashed pilot, the Fox, the Snake and other characters. This is where his journey through the planets ends and his knowledge of the world begins.
Main characters
The main character of a literary fairy tale has childish spontaneity and directness of judgment, supported (but not clouded) by the experience of an adult. Because of this, his actions paradoxically combine responsibility (careful care of the planet) and spontaneity (sudden departure on a trip). In the work, he is an image of a correct way of life, not littered with conventions, which fills it with meaning.
Pilot
The entire story is told from his perspective. He has similarities both with the writer himself and with the Little Prince. The pilot is an adult, but he instantly finds mutual language with a little hero. In the lonely desert, he displays the normal human reaction - he is angry because of problems with engine repairs, he is afraid of dying of thirst. But it reminds him of childhood personality traits that should not be forgotten even in the harshest conditions.
Fox
This image has an impressive semantic load. Tired of the monotony of life, the Fox wants to find affection. By taming it, it shows the Prince the essence of affection. The boy understands and accepts this lesson and finally understands the nature of the relationship with his Rose. The fox is a symbol of understanding the nature of affection and trust.
Rose
A weak, but beautiful and temperamental flower, which has only four thorns to protect it from the dangers of this world. Undoubtedly, the prototype of the flower was the writer’s hot-tempered wife, Consuelo. The rose represents the inconsistency and power of love.
Snake
The second key for storyline character. She, like the biblical asp, offers the Prince a way to return to his beloved Rose with the help of a fatal bite. Longing for the flower, the prince agrees. The snake puts an end to his journey. But whether this point was a real return home or something else, the reader will have to decide. In the fairy tale, the Snake symbolizes deceit and temptation.
Analysis of the work
The genre of “The Little Prince” is a literary fairy tale. There are all the signs: fantastic characters and their wonderful actions, a social and pedagogical message. However, there is also a philosophical context that refers to the traditions of Voltaire. Together with the attitude towards the problems of death, love, and responsibility, which is uncharacteristic of fairy tales, this allows us to classify the work as a parable.
Events in the fairy tale, like most parables, have some cyclicity. At the starting point, the hero is presented as he is, then the development of events leads to a climax, after which “everything returns to normal,” but with a philosophical, ethical or moral load. This happens in The Little Prince, when the main character decides to return to his “tamed” Rose.
From an artistic point of view, the text is filled with simple and understandable images. Mystical imagery, together with simplicity of presentation, allows the author to naturally move from a specific image to a concept, an idea. The text is generously sprinkled with bright epithets and paradoxical semantic constructions.
One cannot fail to note the special nostalgic tone of the tale. Thanks to artistic techniques, adults see in a fairy tale a conversation with a good old friend, and children receive what is described in a simple and figurative language an idea of what kind of world surrounds them. In many ways, The Little Prince owes its popularity to these factors.
To the 70th anniversary of the writing by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
books "The Little Prince"
In December 1942, military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was in a hurry: he wanted to give his compatriots in occupied France a Christmas present: to finish the kind and sad fairy tale “The Little Prince”. The book was finally published in 1942 in New York. Suggested as a cure for ennui by Elisabeth Raynal, the wife of his American publisher, the text of the book will require several months of editing before it takes on its final form. According to biographer Stacy Schiff, Saint-Exupéry wrote the book in the summer and fall of 1942, famously at night, timing his time with calls to friends and liters of black coffee (his traces remain on the pages of the manuscript, which is kept in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York). . It seems that the idea for the book came naturally to Saint-Exupery, as if the story of the Little Prince had been living in him all this time, waiting for an important moment in his life. Despite the fact that his translator, Lewis Galantier, claims that Saint-Exupery rewrote the page a hundred times before sending it to the publisher, it seems that the book came easily to the author. Illustrations for the book will be made by the author in gouache, purchased at a pharmacy on Eighth Avenue, and will present in symbolic form some episodes of the fairy tale. It is important that these are not just illustrations, but an organic part of the work as a whole: the author himself and the heroes of his tale constantly refer to the drawings and argue about them. The unique illustrations in The Little Prince break down language barriers and become part of a universal visual lexicon that everyone can understand.
In his dedication to the book, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry writes: “After all, all adults were children at first, only few of them remember this.” The stern pilot had a special tenderness for children. He wanted to raise children like flowers in a garden: it was not for nothing that he more than once called himself a “gardener.” He felt sorry for the child he met who had rude, ignorant parents, and he himself was happy when he managed to help the child in at least something. Probably because of his love for children, because of his sense of responsibility to those who would come to Earth, replacing the adults, he wrote the wonderful fairy tale “The Little Prince” at the end of his life.
Let's say a few words about the prototypes of the heroes of this truly book for all times. The image of the Little Prince himself is both deeply autobiographical and, as it were, removed from the adult author-pilot. He was born out of longing for little Tonio, who was dying within himself - a descendant of an impoverished noble family, who was called in the family “Sun King” for his blond hair at first, and in college was nicknamed “Lunatic” for his habit of looking at the starry sky for a long time. The phrase itself - “The Little Prince” - is found in “Planet of People”, however, like many other images and thoughts. And in 1940, during breaks between battles with the Nazis, Saint-Exupery often drew a boy on a piece of paper - sometimes winged, sometimes riding on a cloud. Gradually, the wings were replaced by a long scarf, which, by the way, was worn by the author himself, and the cloud will become asteroid B-612. The prototype of the capricious and touching Rose was, of course, Saint-Exupéry’s wife, Consuelo, an impulsive Latina, whom her friends nicknamed “the little Salvadoran volcano.” By the way, in the original the author always writes not “Rose”, but “la fleur” - a flower, but in French this word is feminine, so in the Russian translation Nora Gal replaced the flower with a Rose (in the picture it is really a rose). As for Fox, there were more disputes about prototypes and translation options. This is what translator Nora Gal writes in the article “Under the Star of Saint-Ex”: “When “The Little Prince” was published, we first had a heated debate in the editorial office: the Fox in the fairy tale or the Fox - again, feminine or masculine? Some people believed that the fox in the fairy tale was Rose's rival. Here the dispute is no longer about one word, not about a phrase, but about the understanding of the entire image. Even more, to a certain extent, about understanding the entire fairy tale: its intonation, coloring, deep inner meaning - everything changed from this “little thing”... The main thing is that in the fairy tale the Fox is, first of all, a friend. Rose is love, Fox is friendship, and the faithful friend Fox teaches the Little Prince fidelity, teaches him to always feel responsible for his beloved and for all his loved ones.” We can add one more observation: the unusually large ears of the Fox in Saint-Exupéry's drawing are most likely inspired by the small desert fennec fox, one of the many creatures tamed by the writer while serving in Morocco.
Naive and wise, sad and cheerful, magical and real coexist in a fairy tale. There is also satire, cartoon, and caricature in the fairy tale. The inhabitants of the tiny planets that the Little Prince visited look ridiculous: a geographer who has never traveled, an astronomer who has forgotten the word “stars,” an ambitious man, a drunkard, a businessman. None of them have time to think, fantasize, grieve, or develop. Each of them is too self-absorbed. In their entire lives, not one of them had ever smelled a flower, nor had they ever loved anyone. And even the lamplighter, endlessly lighting and extinguishing lanterns, looks like a worthy person: after all, once it was necessary, he always did this work on time and was never able to stop, because he felt responsible for the work he was doing. Let's remember some quotes from this work:
If you keep going straight and straight, you won’t get far...
Do you know why the desert is good? Springs are hidden somewhere in it...
The eyes are blind. You have to search with your heart.
Vain people are deaf to everything except praise.
It's also lonely among people.
There is no perfection in the world!
You are forever responsible for those you have tamed.
It is much more difficult to judge yourself than others. If you can judge yourself correctly, then you are truly wise.
The tale was first published in 1943 in the USA, first published in English, then in French. Translated into more than 180 languages and dialects, including major European, Asian, and African languages. There are editions in Friulian in Italy, Bamana in Mali, Aragonese in Spain, Creole in Curaçao and Gascon in France. Only in India there are publications in Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Malayalam, Bengali and Konkani. There are more than 30 publications in China and more than 60 in Korea. Nora Gal's Russian translation of The Little Prince was first published in Moscow magazine in 1959.
Main characters:
A little prince
A small golden-haired boy, the owner of a small planet on which there is 1 rose and three volcanoes. A smart, thinking kid like an adult. He's lonely. Travels around planets and is surprised by the “strangeities” of adults. To return to his planet, he asks the snake to bite him, this is a forced step. A symbol of fidelity, wisdom, purity, eternal childhood.
Fox
An animal that wants to be tamed. He made friends with the boy, taught him how to tame and revealed the main secret.
Rose
Proud, touchy, capricious. Her seed brought the little prince to the planet by accident, she “preened” for a long time before opening up. Rose has a difficult character, she loves herself and expects care and compliments. He asks for help to protect himself from the wind, he is afraid of insects and animals (which are not on the planet). He flirts and behaves a lot. When he realizes that the little prince is leaving the planet, he confesses his love to him, wishes him happiness, and does not blame him for anything. She asks to leave, not wanting him to see her tears.
Minor characters
Mr. with a purple face
Lives on a separate small planet. All his life he adds up numbers, repeating that he is a serious person. He didn’t love anyone, didn’t rejoice at flowers, didn’t notice the stars.
King
He lives alone on a small planet, his mantle covers it completely. Proud, but kind. He has no subjects, just an old rat. The king thinks logically, but believes that all heavenly bodies obey him. He invites the little prince to stay with him, become a minister and judge himself (after all, this is the most difficult thing).
The monarch proposes to try the rat, sentence him to death, and then pardon him. After all, there is only one rat, you need to take care of it.
Ambitious
He lives alone on a small planet, he meets the prince with joy, he is glad that someone will worship him. He explains what ambition is and asks to applaud many times in a row.
Drunkard
The little guest visited his planet after an ambitious man. There was nothing on it but empty and full bottles. The drunkard said that he drinks because he is ashamed of his drinking... The boy left this planet faster than everyone else.
Business man
He's always counting the stars, he's very busy. He has lived on the planet for 54 years, he has no time to get sick, and no time to rest. Over all these years, he was distracted from work 2 times: Chafer, accidentally flew to him, and an attack of rheumatism. The importance of the work of a serious person lies in the fact that he counts the stars, writes down their number and owns them, locking them in a safe with a key. The little prince sees in him a resemblance to a drunkard.
Lamplighter
Lights and extinguishes the lantern every minute according to agreement.
Geographer
An old geographer who knows nothing about his planet, since he does not travel on it. Writes down the data of the Little Prince's planet and advises him to visit Earth.
Snake
The first person the boy met on Earth. She doesn't bite him, but suggests that he turn to her when he gets tired of everything. The baby turns to her “services” to return to his planet.
For the reader's diary, it will be useful to familiarize yourself with the description of the main and minor characters of the fairy tale. This list includes heroes living on all the planets visited by the Little Prince, as well as those whom he met and tamed on Earth.
answered 09 Sep, 18 from anonymousAsk a related question
Almost every literature lover knows the allegorical fairy tale “The Little Prince,” which teaches the value of friendship and relationships: the Frenchman’s work is even included in the list of university programs in humanities faculties. The magical fairy tale has spread all over the world, and a museum in Japan is dedicated to the main character, who lived on a small planet.
History of creation
The writer worked on “The Little Prince” while living in the largest city in America - New York. The Frenchman had to move to the country of Coca-Cola and, because at that time his homeland was occupied by Nazi Germany. Therefore, the first to enjoy the fairy tale were the speakers in English- the story, which was published in 1943, was sold in translation by Katherine Woods.
Saint-Exupery's seminal work was decorated with the author's watercolor illustrations, which are no less famous than the book itself, as they became part of the eccentric visual lexicon. In addition, the author himself refers to these drawings in the text, and the main characters sometimes even argue about them.
The tale was also published in the original language in the United States, but French literature lovers saw it only after the war, in 1946. In Russia, “The Little Prince” appeared only in 1958, thanks to Nora Gal’s translation. Soviet children met a magical character on the pages of the literary magazine “Moscow”.
Saint-Exupéry's work is autobiographical. The writer yearned for childhood, as well as for the dying little boy in himself, who grew up and was brought up in the city of Lyon at 8 Rue Peyrat, and who was called the “Sun King” because the child was adorned with blond hair. But in college, the future writer acquired the nickname “Lunatic” because he had romantic character traits and spent a long time staring at the bright stars.
Saint-Exupery understood that a fantastic time machine had not been invented. He will not return to that happy time when he could not think about worries, and then have time to do right choice regarding the future.
Drawing "Boa constrictor that ate an elephant" It is not for nothing that at the beginning of the book the writer talks about a drawing of a boa constrictor that ate an elephant: all the adults saw a hat on the piece of paper, and also advised not to spend their time on meaningless creativity, but to study school subjects. When the child became an adult, he did not become addicted to canvas and brushes, but became a professional pilot. The man still showed his creation to the adults, and they again called the snake a headdress.
It was impossible to talk with these people about boas and stars, so the pilot lived in complete solitude until he met the Little Prince - the first chapter of the book tells about this. Thus, it becomes clear that the parable talks about the artless soul of a child, as well as about important “non-childish” concepts such as life and death, fidelity and betrayal, friendship and betrayal.
In addition to the prince, there are other heroes in the parable, for example, the touching and capricious Rose. The prototype of this beautiful but prickly flower was the wife of the writer Consuelo. This woman was an impulsive Latina with a hot temperament. No wonder her friends nicknamed the beauty “the little Salvadoran volcano.”
The book also contains the character Fox, whom Exupery invented based on the image of a small fennec fox living in a desert area. This conclusion was made due to the fact that in the illustrations the red-haired hero has large ears. In addition, the writer wrote to his sister:
“I am raising a fennec fox, also called a solitary fox. He is smaller than a cat and has huge ears. He's charming. Unfortunately, he is wild like a beast of prey and roars like a lion.”
It is noteworthy that the tailed character caused a stir in Russian edition, translating The Little Prince. Nora Gal recalled that the publishing house could not decide whether the book was about the Fox or about the Fox. The entire deep meaning of the fairy tale depended on such a trifle, because this hero, according to the translator, embodies friendship, and not Rose’s rival.
Biography and plot
When the pilot was flying over the Sahara, something broke in the engine of his plane. Therefore, the hero of the work was at a disadvantage: if he did not fix the breakdown, he would die from lack of water. In the morning, the pilot was awakened by a child's voice asking him to draw a lamb. In front of the hero stood a tiny boy with golden hair, who inexplicably found himself in the kingdom of sand. The little prince was the only one who managed to see the boa constrictor that swallowed the elephant.
New friend The pilot flew from a planet that has a boring name - asteroid B-612. This planet was small, the size of a house, and the prince looked after it every day and took care of nature: he cleaned volcanoes and weeded out baobab sprouts.
The boy did not like living a monotonous life, because every day he did the same thing. To dilute the gray canvas of life bright colors, a resident of the planet admired the sunset. But one day everything changed. A flower appeared on asteroid B-612: a proud and touchy, but wonderful rose.
The main character fell in love with a plant with thorns, and Rose turned out to be too arrogant. But at the moment of farewell, the flower told the little prince that he loved him. Then the boy left Rose and went on a journey, and curiosity forced him to visit other planets.
On the first asteroid there lived a king who dreamed of acquiring loyal subjects, and invited the prince to become a member of a higher authority. On the second was the ambitious person, on the third - the addicted to strong drinks.
Later, the prince met on his way a business man, a geographer and a lamplighter, who he liked the most, because the others made the hero think that adults are strange people. According to the agreement, this unfortunate man lit the lantern every morning and turned it off at night, but since his planet had become smaller, he had to perform this function every minute.
The seventh planet was the Earth, which made an indelible impression on the boy. And this is not surprising, because several kings, thousands of geographers, as well as millions of ambitious people, adults and drunkards lived on it.
However, the little man in the long scarf only made friends with the pilot, the Fox and the snake. The Snake and the Fox promised to help the prince, and the latter taught him the main idea: it turns out that you can tame anyone and become his friend, but you always need to be responsible for those you have tamed. The boy also learned that sometimes you need to be guided by the dictates of your heart, not your mind, because sometimes you cannot see the most important thing with your eyes.
Therefore, the main character decided to return to the abandoned Rose and went to the desert, where he had landed earlier. He asked the pilot to draw a lamb in a box and found a poisonous snake, whose bite instantly kills any living creature. If she returns people to the earth, then she returned the little prince to the stars. Thus, the Little Prince died at the end of the book.
Before this, the Prince told the pilot not to be sad, because the night sky would remind him of his unusual acquaintance. The narrator repaired his plane, but did not forget the golden-haired boy. However, sometimes he was overcome by excitement, since he forgot to draw a strap for the muzzle, so the lamb could easily feast on the flower. After all, if Rose is gone, then the boy’s world will not be the same as before, and it’s hard for adults to understand this.
- A reference to "The Little Prince" is found in the Depeche Mode video for the song "Enjoy the Silence". In the video, viewers see a flashing rose and a vocalist who is dressed in an elegant cloak and crown.
- The French singer sang a song that translated into Russian means “Draw me a lamb” (“Dessine-moi un mouton”). Also, songs by Otto Dix, Oleg Medvedev, and other performers were dedicated to the hero of the work.
- Before the creation of The Little Prince, Exupery did not write children's stories.
- Another work by the French author, “Planet of Men” (1938), has motifs similar to “The Little Prince”.
- On October 15, 1993, an asteroid was discovered, which in 2002 was given the name “46610 Besixdouze”. The mysterious word after the numbers is another way to translate B-612 into French.
- When Exupery took part in the war, in between battles he drew a boy on a piece of paper - either with wings like a fairy, or sitting on a cloud. Then this character acquired a long scarf, which, by the way, was worn by the writer himself.
Quotes
“I didn’t want you to get hurt. You yourself wanted me to tame you.”
“I would like to know why the stars shine. Probably so that sooner or later everyone can find theirs again.”
“You should never listen to what flowers say. You just have to look at them and breathe in their scent. My flower filled my whole planet with fragrance, but I didn’t know how to enjoy it.”
“This is how my Fox used to be. He was no different from a hundred thousand other foxes. But I became friends with him, and now he is the only one in the whole world.”
“People no longer have enough time to learn anything. They buy things ready-made in stores. But there are no such shops where friends would trade, and therefore people no longer have friends.”
“After all, vain people imagine that everyone admires them.”