TLP

My interpretation of the famous children book, The Little Prince.


I don’t remember if the pilot in the book was given a name. In any case, he started the book with some sort of a drawing- a snake that ate an elephant. Whenever he showed this drawing to adults, he'd have to explain that it's not a hat but a snake. He thinks that adults lack imagination.

He crashed in the dessert with enough water and he must learn to fix his plane for him to survive. Here comes the little prince.

The little prince asked him to draw a sheep. And he drew them but the little prince criticized his work. Finally, he drew a box and he said that the sheep was inside the box. Ironically he couldn’t see it but the little prince saw the sheep. Therefore, he grew up and lost some of his imagination.

The little prince tells his story, his planet, his explorations and adventures.

The little prince lives in a small planet with 3 volcanoes(2 active,1 extinct) and a flower.

The little prince tends a single flower. The flower is very vain and demands that he does certain things for her. The Little Prince complies, but he doesn’t really know why he loves the flower that much to follow her orders.

Her melodramatic, proud nature is what causes the prince to leave his planet and begin his explorations. Also, the prince’s memory of his rose is what prompts his desire to return. The little prince still loves her deeply because of the time he has spent watering and caring for her.
And her thorns are not there for her to protect her but she see it differently. Her thorns are useless if the sheep would come and eat her, but the rose said that her thorns make the lion afraid of her.
As the journey unravels, the little prince reaches Earth, he meets a fox that tells him the secret of life.

When the fox begs the little prince to tame him, the fox appears to be the little prince’s friend as well as his instructor. In his lessons about taming, the fox argues for the importance of ceremonies and rituals, showing that such tools are important even outside the strict world of grown ups.
The fox said
“One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes”
This is the most compelling line for me in this book. The most important things in life can’t be seen.

Moving forward..


When they(pilot and the prince) were looking for water in the desert. He searched for the well. I see this as teaching that lessons must be learned through personal exploration and not only from books or others' words.

And here comes the snake. The snake is so confident he has mastered life’s mysteries that he tells the prince he speaks only in riddles because he can solve all riddles. The snake is the only absolute. His poisonous bite. Unavoidable truth. Death.

In the end, the eyes can’t see what’s really important because what’s really important can be felt by the heart.


-DIK