The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - Part 2 of 2

2020 Reading Challenge - Day 183

July 2, 2020

Book 52 - The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1943)
 Part 1 - page 51-91
Reading Time - 30 minutes

There has always been one line in The Little Prince that stands our for me, a line spoken by the Fox - "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye". I think that sums it up quite well. And if all I take away from The Little Prince is that line... well, I think that's quite a bit.

After visiting several planets with their individual inhabitants, lastly that of the Geographer, the Little Prince, arrives upon Earth. But Earth is very different from the tiny planets/stars he has been visiting, as are the inhabitants. His first encounter is with the Snake who promises that "whomever I touch, I send back to the earth from whence he came"... an obvious allusion to death. He then meets a flower, finds an entire garden of roses, making him a bit sad that his own special flower on his planet is quite common. And then... the Little Prince meets the Fox who begs to be tamed. According to the Fox, "one only understands the things that one tames" and that "Men have no more time to understand anything." He tells the Little Prince, "If you want a friend, tame me...". This taming business, according to the Fox requires time and patience.  And the Fox reminds the Little Prince that "you become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed"...

The Little Prince has a few more encounters and then we, the readers, catch up with the narration of the Aviator... ultimately watching as the Snake bites the Little Prince so that he can return to his star/planet. And when, six years later, the Aviator looks up at the stars, he thinks of the Little Prince and his sheep and wonders... did the sheep eat the rose or... did the Little Prince manage to protect it.

There is a message here... that we, who tend to look at things, with a superficial eye, do not really know them, understand them or cherish them. We do not see what is invisible to the eye because we do not love the things we gaze upon. We have not tamed them... or been tamed by them... because we have neither the time nor the patience to just gaze in wonder. For if we did gaze in wonder at anything, a stone, a flower, a star, a tree, a snake... we would see it rightly with our heart... and could no more destroy it than we could destroy ourselves. At least... that's my take on it...