Article Icon: source
I can still recall the numerous nights where I would ask my mother to read me “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. As a child, I simply couldn’t get enough of the Little Prince and his adventures around the galaxy. It was a book like no other that would make you contemplate life, even as a 7-year-old. The main message of the novel is to “never grow up/ lose our childhood sensibilities” and I kept telling myself that it would never happen. I could never fathom how “teens” and “adults” would lose their playfulness, their appreciation of life and the little things life has to offer.
A few years rolled by and I had completely forgotten about the Little Prince and his words of wisdom. I let everyday life engulf my soul and thoughts. It is only after I read and analyzed the literature piece in my senior year French class that I realized how much the message meant as an adult. The book is written to be read by both children and adults (kids and their parents) and to be understood in completely different ways.
The story itself is full of hidden meanings and it’s only once you’re an “adult” that you can fully understand them. There are also many different interpretations of the symbols depending on your history and childhood. One of the most striking quotes from the story for me is in the first few pages of the book itself.
“Now there were some terrible seeds on the planet that was the home of the little prince; and these were the seeds of the baobab. The soil of that planet was infested with them. A baobab is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late. It spreads over the entire planet. It bores clear through it with its roots. And if the planet is too small, and the baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces…” – The Little Prince, Sainte-Exupéry
This quote hit too close to home. These trees that infest the Prince’s planet are his dark thoughts. His anxiety, depression, his loneliness. Once you let them take root in your mind, it’s nearly impossible to get rid of them. As an adult, life is very stressful and the world is a cruel place if you have learned to look at it in that perspective. Therefore, he insists on the importance of getting rid of the baobab trees as early as possible before such a calamity would have the chance to develop itself. This is only one of the many quotes in the book that I could relate to immensely.
Every planet that the Prince travels to is a different “sin” or ideal of life. He meets the businessman, the light keeper, the king and many more strange characters on his journeys. As an “adult” according to the book, I have been assimilated into finding a purpose and something I must do for the rest of my life (a job) without really yielding any purpose from it. As I kept reading this novel that kept hitting close to home, I realized that all the childhood joy and innocence in me was gone. I was too far into the depts of “adulthood”.
This novel touched on many more subjects that only make themselves more apparent as you journey through the galaxy along with the Little Prince. This book has taught me the value of appreciating the little things in life, to accomplish what I enjoy in life as well as to simply “be a child” to survive through everyday scenarios. It’s real friends in life that count; not those who pretend to be. Cherish those few true friends that you have.
I also believe that this novel has inspired me to chase my dreams even if they seemed impossible at the time. I was originally planning on going to university and get a degree in accounting since I figured it was the only thing I was good at. After a few weeks from the time at which I finished reading this book, I left for my exchange in Japan. It was in Japan that I realized that life was too short to take shortcuts and that I didn’t want to work so hard at something I didn’t have the heart in. I’d just end up like the businessman. It just wasn’t what I was cut out to do. When I came back, I took all of the pre-requisite classes in order to apply to Animal Biology and hopefully make it to vet school in the future. This was probably the most important decision I’ve made in my life so far and this book has guided me in the right direction. It’s quite ironic that I was named after a book character and that a book is what is currently helping me through my own personal journey.
All in all, I highly recommend this novel. It can be purchased for under a dollar as an eBook and is a really short read. It is extremely underappreciated and not many people I know read or even heard of this book. I hope that the Little Prince story can move you as much as it has influenced me and that you enjoy your journey from planet to planet. The feelings I have for this story are almost impossible to write into words. It’s something you must feel with your heart, the true eye to your soul.
“All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.” – The Little Prince, Sainte-Exupéry