THE LITTLE PRINCE

by: Antoine de Saint Exupéry

Published: 1943
Review by: Alexandria Noelle B. Capule

As a reader, I have read the book for the second time already. And I have noticed that the
book is not for children at all. Maybe the design of the book was for children but not the content
of it. It was surprisingly good that the design and the content are connected to each other. I have
read this book when I was in grade 6 and to tell you honestly I didn’t understand the story. Now I
will try my best to give a good review on this.
This book was said to be good that it became one of the best–selling and most translated
book that has ever been published. Over the years, the book was always seen in the children’s
section of the bookstore, due to its design and layout that makes it pleasant for the eyes of every
kids. Also, it is less than a hundred pages that makes it look like a story book for kids. However,
the content of the book needed a deep understanding in able to capture the ‘real’ story. If a child
would try to read this, there is high possibility that they will get confused.
The author is Antoine de Saint Exupéry, a French pilot and author that has published
numerous books under the topic aviation, several of this were a French literature. In the book of
“The Little Prince”, Exupéry somewhat base this in his life, an autobiographical type. He did
great in executing the story, due to its multiple genre and different symbolisms that contains real
deep meaning. He started the story by describing how he was urged as a child to focus on
sensible things rather than child-like matters as told to him by the grown-ups.
The story’s time frame jumped many years later, Exupéry, the pilot who was urged to
focus on important things and was discouraged to pursue his painter career, has crashed his plane
in Sahara Desert. At that time, he was desperate to fix his broken engine because his water
supply is about to runout. While this is happening, he was awakened by an odd little voice,
saying "If you please−− draw me a sheep!" It was a little boy who has a golden hair, prince of
distant asteroid B-612.
For those people who understand life, this book is for you. The story was about a little
prince who lived alone on his planet. When suddenly, a seed of rose was planted in his planet.
He diverted his attention to the rose and the rose kept him accompanied, he then started to get
attached to it, but the rose was too demanding for him so the prince left his planet and wander
into the galaxy to search what is important to life. Eventually, after his long journey he went to
Earth and there, he met a fox that thought him the most valuable thing in life and that is “what is
essential is invisible in the eyes”. When he learned the value of understanding and love, he goes
home to tell the pilot about he learned. Learning the things, he has to learn was worth it even if it
means goodbye.
The real essence of the story is to make us forget the things that adults once told us we’re
very serious and it replaces them with love and imagination that came so easily to us when we
are little. Also, to learn how to value the things around us will be great in all means. And my
favorite lesson of this story is “maturity is not observed by age, it is observed by experience”.