Summary

Sometimes the most important ideas are so simple, and they are best expressed by short stories, fit for children. I was introduced to this book many years ago as a gift from a childhood friend of mine when I was a teenager. That original book was in the Persian language and my reading skills were not sufficient enough to fully ready it but I by chance found an English version in my house years ago. However, I never finished the book. For some reason the memory of this book recently came back to me and I picked it from my book shelf and read it. I was pleasantly surprised. I am not sure how I would have felt about it at a younger age but this small book feels familiar to me, like a memory, what the world is like from the perspective of a child driven by curiosity to start the journey of discovering truths. The Little Prince will always have a place in my heart.

What Happened to All of the Adults?

As the prince goes around to different planets he meets different adult men and tries to understand who they are, what they do, and why they do it.

The first planet the prince arrives to is inhabited by a king. The King insists that his authority must be respected and tolerates no disobedience. However, he makes his orders reasonable, so reasonable that they are not really orders but rather more like statements of inevitable actions that would occur, but because he says it first he can act like his will has caused the action. As he claims, “I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable.” In my mind this king represents people who believe they have power over others. Perhaps this power is a complete illusion? It makes me think of how humans walk dogs, where they think of the dog as under their control, but who is walking who?

The second planet the prince arrives to is inhabited by a conceited man. The conceited man has only one objective in life, to be admired by others. He wants to others to see him as the “…handsomest, the best dressed, the richest, and the most intelligent man on this planet.” I think it’s fair to say there is no shortage of conceited men alive today.

The third planet is inhabited by a drunk. There is not much to say about the drunk but there is funny circular logic that the author describes here, for when the little prince begins a series of why questions with why he is drinking, the drunk explains that he is drinking to forget, because he is ashamed, because he is a drunk.

The fourth planet has a businessman. The businessman spends his life counting numbers. These numbers represent the stars in the sky. When the little prince asks the businessman what good it is to be rich, the business man responds that it is good because it allows one to get richer. The justification to be the owner of the stars is because he was the first one to think of it. Expanding this idea makes me wonder if the west has come to become the “owner” of most of the world because that is where the idea of capitalism and legal ownership, at least in the modern sense, was first thought of. It all sounds kind of funny when you think of it this way.

The fifth planet is the smallest of them all, and contains a lamplighter. Back before electricity lamplighters performed the duty of lighting lamps. This was a mindless job but necessary. The lamplighter puts out his lamp and relights it again and again with no end. When asked why, he responds “orders are orders” and that “there is nothing to understand”. The lamplighter says, “The one thing I love in life is to sleep.” The prince calls him unlucky, and mentions of all the men he has seen on the different planets he is the only one he could imagine befriending because he thinks of something else besides himself. I think it’s clear that the lamplighter represents the poor of society that are stuck in the dead-end and unlucky circumstance of low-wage labor. The best representative modern equivalent is probably the factory worker of third world countries.

The sixth planet contains a geographer. The geographer is a man of great knowledge but little first-hand experience. He is not familiar with the geography of his own planet, and his information about the geography of other planets comes to him via explorers that tell him about it. So, none of his knowledge is from first-hand experience. The geographer believes everything he is writing down is of great importance and has an element of permanence to it. When the little prince speaks of a flower on his planet which he loves the geographer mentions that it is not important and is too ephemeral to be recorded. The geographer in my view represents people such as academics or experts. They seek to record truths they deem to be important, but they may sacrifice their own “ephemeral” lives to do so. I suppose I can relate on some level after spending much of my adult life in universities one way or another. I know the difference between working at the desk and working in the field, the main difference is that field work forces you to get out of your mind and you must be present in the moment with the people you are with and the environment. Too much desk work leaves you detached.

The seventh planet is the largest of them all, Planet Earth. According to the book Planet Earth had a population of 2 billion adults, 311 million conceited men (16% of adults), 7.5 million drunks (0.4% of adults), 900000 businessmen (0.05% of adults), 7000 geographers (.0004% of adults), and 111 kings (.000006% of adults). Not sure if I take anything away from this other than the author may have believed 31% of adult men were conceited, as you would have to double that percentage to remove the 50% of adult women in the population. Oddly enough Earth is the only planet where the little prince does not interact with any adults, he only interacts with different animals and the child narrator of the story.

Where are the Women?

I find it interesting that there are no women mentioned in this book. Why the focus on men? It was written in 1943, and women were not seen in the same light as they are today. But still, most stories have female characters even older ones. I believe the author was trying to make a point about society were for many men the process leading to adulthood removes their humanity. This process can perhaps be called the “professionalization” of individuals into specified societal roles, whether it is the knowledgeable expert, the businessman, the hard laborer, etc. In the era of the book women were yet to fully participate in the “professional” world and it was not the norm for most women to have full time jobs. I think one can argue the same or similar effects that occur to professionalized men are also occurring to women as they become professionals and fill roles in the various industries of the modern industrialized world.

What Makes a Rose Unique?

“I thought that I was rich, with a flower that was unique in all the world; and all I had was a common rose.”

Much of the story challenges the notion of uniqueness and how in a world of many one can be in love with only one. The little prince loves a single rose on his planet, the rose is not perfect, but he feels a strong bond. He always felt that the rose was the one and only in the universe, but on Earth he finds a single garden of roses which contain thousands of them. The little prince meets a fox and the fox teaches him the way to make his rose unique is to tame it.

“To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world...”

To tame, the fox mentions, is the process by which one becomes unique and familiar. “…if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine in my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others.” According to the fox, “One only understands the things that one tames…there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends anymore. If you want a friend, tame me…You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose…”

The fox teaches the bond formed by taming has its positives and negatives. Great friendship and joy can result from the bond, but when there is separation it may bring the opposite effect, “One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one himself be tamed…” Many of us know what it is like to tame and be tamed, it is something shared with many creatures, perhaps most notably with our dogs. However, a creature such as a human is significantly more complicated than a dog. Most dogs will be tamed once you provide food, shelter, and some patience. But to tame a human, especially a thoughtful one who perceives not just actions but intentions, is something altogether different. I imagine there is no sure way to do it.

Love vs. Fear

One theme I see in this book is the clash of Love vs. Fear. The little prince is a character with both an open mind and an open heart. However, all of the adult men in the story have likely lost or closed their hearts years ago, their motivations appear to be driven by fear. One can argue greed is also another motivation, but I would say that fear and greed are two sides of the same coin. Greed is simply a consequence of fear, greed is an attempt to overconsume to try to eliminate fear. But fear is a deeply rooted feeling, a consequence of our temporary and fragile existence as living creatures, and the effects of overconsuming are temporary.

Think about it, there is no reason to have greed if there is nothing to be afraid of, no reason to indulge in gluttony if there is no risk of hunger, no reason to pursue excess money if there is no way to go broke, and so on. Our fears are based on the realities of life, and so is our greed. However, our imaginations likely greatly exacerbate the reality.

Love, however, is something completely different. Love is a devotion, a feeling, a relationship. Love is a sense of responsibility, a longing, an attachment. Love disables the drives of fear and greed, it allows us to live for other purposes than ourselves, in that way it gives us freedom from the fear/greed prison that we tend to live in.

Conclusion

The message of this little book I find to be quite profound. Happiness does not come from being in a position of power, prestige, wealth, security, admiration, hard work, intoxication, skills, or knowledge. Happiness comes from giving and receiving love.

Select Quotes

“To forget a friend is sad. Not everyone has a friend. And if I forget him, I may become like the grown-ups who are no longer interested in anything but figures…”

“Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.”

“My friend never explained anything to me. He thought, perhaps, that I was like himself.”

“I ought to have judged by deeds and not by words.”

“It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, than you are indeed a man of true wisdom.”

“’The men where you live,’ said the little prince, ‘raise five thousand roses in the same garden – and they do not find in it what they are looking for.’…’And yet what they are looking for could be found in one single rose, or in a little water.’”

“The thing that is important is the thing that is not seen.”