The Little Prince Book Summary by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Novel “The Little Prince” by a French aristocrat, writer and aviator named Antoine de Saint-Exupery is a children’s literature.

The story is the warmth to the reader’s heart and frames a new perspective towards seeing the world in the reader’s mind.

The Story of ” The Little Prince “

The story “The Little Prince” starts with a pilot crashing in Sahara Desert. He tries figuring out to repair the plane’s engine so that he can rescue from the problem. In the meantime, a kid approaches to him and ask the pilot to draw a lamb’s picture for him.

The pilot claims that he does not know to draw. Once upon a time in his childhood, he had seen a snake swallowing the elephant and tried to draw it on the paper. He drew the picture exactly he imagined but adults did not validate his work and asked the pilot not to continue drawing because it looks like hat not what he had tried to showcase. Therefore he decides to leave drawing and became a pilot.

He handed over the same drawing to him. The kid who is the little price was not happy with it because he wanted a drawing of a lamb only. So the pilot drew a couple of drawings for him but he was still unsatisfied.

The pilot got irritated. Then drew a box with three holes and told him that the lamb was inside the box. The little prince got satisfied now. This too signifies that kids like imagining a lot and therefore he got happy with the drawing.

Life in his Asteroid

Gradually the pilot received the knowledge about the little prince. The prince was originally from a small asteroid named B-612.

The asteroid consists of three little volcano. He spent most of his time cleaning the asteroid and the volcano.

Some times before a rose had also come to stay with him. He had never seen a rose before. It was really attractive and beautiful to him.

The rose claimed that it was the most beautiful and only rose in the entire universe. He took care of the rose constantly but the rose had different kinds of demands.

Prince got irritated by fulfilling all its demands and decided to leave the asteroid. He went to explore the whole universe.

He visited various planets and asteroids. The Little Prince met with different kinds of people likely an arrogant king, a show off, a drunkard, a business man. All these were adults. Since he was a kid, he found the adults very strange.

Finally he reached the biggest asteroid. There he met with a geographer. The person suggested him the kid to visit Earth because he has heard various good things about Earth.

Earth

He realized Earth was huge. He could not find any person in there easily. Then he met with a snake. He talked with the snake and asked about the place. The snake replied that he is in a desert now. Snake said, “You won’t find much people in a desert”. The snake offered to help him whenever he wants to go back to his place.

Suddenly he heard a voice of someone. There was a fox. The Little Prince asked the fox to play with him. The fox answered,” I cannot play with you because I am not tame”. The kid did not understand what the fox just said.

The fox replied,” For me to play with you, you will have to domestic me. Keep me with yourself so that we two will build a relationship with each other. We will become special to each other”.

After listening to this the little prince realized the value of the rose he had back in his asteroid. He made a special relationship with the rose.

Realization

He also realized that there may be hundreds of kinds of same creature but that one particular creature becomes special to them. One can even die for the particular love they built with.

The fox gave the kid a secret. He told, “You can only see from the heart what is invisible to the eye”.

The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched; they are felt with the Heart.

The pilot was pleased with stories of the little prince but he was also worried that they might die due to thirst.

They went for the search of well of water. While they were going, the kid appreciated the beauty of the sky. He said, “The sky is beautiful because I know there is an amazing rose in my asteroid. Now when I can’t see my rose, the whole sky is beautiful.

Likewise, this desert is also beautiful. Not because of its loneliness or vibes but because we know there is water somewhere hidden in this desert”.

The pilot got the justification of what we see is not beautiful instead what we see is beautiful.

They found the well of water and drank it peacefully. One can find happiness in small things like in a rose or in small quantity of water. Just that one has to find it with all the heart.

Next day the pilot could repair the plane because he got the essential parts for it. He searched for the little prince and found that he was killed by the snake the prince first met with. The kid went to the snake because he offered to help him to go back home.

The little prince’s last words were,” Don’t worry, I am going home to take care of my rose, when you will see the stars at night, and you could see me through one the stars”.

Lessons from the book The Little Prince

Lesson 1: Never lose your imagination

One can notice from the story that adults always lack imagination. They can only see the hat instead of the picture the pilot as a kid drew. One’s imagination is something that makes the world a beautiful place.

Lesson 2: What is invisible to the eye can be felt by the heart

Lesson 3: It is the time you spend on people or things that matters

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