To Love Like the Little Prince

Introduction:

The Little Prince is written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a French pilot who was born in a traditional Catholic aristocrat family on June 29th, 1900. During the World War II, he rejoined the French Air Force. After the war, he lived a hard life and started exiling, during which he spent three months on writing down this fairy tale. After its publication, it soon became very popular and then it has been translated into more than 190 languages and has sold more than 80 million copies, making it the best selling French-language book and one of the best-selling books ever.

Summary:

The narrator of this novella is a pilot. At the beginning of the story, he tells the readers that in the adults’ world, he cannot find somebody to talk to, for the reason that they are always so practical. After that, he narrates his story about the little prince. Six years ago, due to an aircraft fault, he had to conduct a force landing on the Sahara Desert, in which he encountered the little prince. The little prince was from another planet. He then told the pilot about his own stories, including the story of himself and his rose, the reason why he left his mother planet and his interstellar travels as well. In the little prince’s adventures, he came across a king, a conceited man, a tippler, a lamplighter, a geologist and a businessman. On planet Earth, he met a snake and a fox, saw a rose garden, and at last, of course, he encountered the pilot, also the narrator of the whole story. In the Sahara Desert, the little prince and the pilot had a lot of great joyful memories, and had built up a very precious friendship. So when the little prince decided to leave, the pilot was very sad. He missed the times when they were together. Therefore, in memory of the little prince, he wrote down this novella.

Details:    

•The little prince and the rose

The little prince is a child from the Planet B-612, which is a small planet that has the size of just only a house. There are many seeds of baobab in the soil. But one day, the wind brought a small seed of rose here, and it took root, sprouted and bloomed. The little prince fell in love with this beautiful rose, listened to everything she told him and totally let her order him. He could feel her pride was growing, but he did not understand the love hidden under her mask of pride, which made him hearth-broken. Therefore, the little prince decided to leave. When saying goodbye, the rose did not grumble at all, taking the little prince by surprise. Instead, at last, she said sincerely but sadly, "I have been silly, I ask your forgiveness. Try to be happy… Of course I love you. It is my fault that you have not known it all the while. That is of no importance. But you - - you have been just as foolish as I. Try to be happy… Let the glass globe be. I don't want it any more. "

It cannot be denied that the rose who likes to lie seems to be arrogant and vain, but all her imperfections are the signs which show how she loves but does not know how to love the little prince. What she wants is just a little bit more carefulness, more gazes and more attention. She said flowers need fresh air, but she let the little prince protect her with a glass globe - - she obviously wanted the little prince to know how vulnerable she was and she needed be taken care of, but all these on the contrary became the factors that made the little prince suspicious. In the end, when the little prince made up his mind to leave, she did not want the glass anymore, because that glass globe means nothing without the little prince’s love. The proud rose did not say a word for persuading him to stay. Instead, she even urged him to take off, showing her thorns naively. "Well, I must endure the presence of two or three caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. It seems that they are very beautiful. And if not the butterflies--and the caterpillars--who will call upon me? You will be far away… As for the large animals - - I am not at all afraid of any of them. I have my claws. "

We are too young to figure out what is the true meaning of love and how to love, especially how to love each other, just like the arrogant rose admitted her faults and tried hard to held her tears back despite the fact that she deeply loved the little prince. Life of a flower is always really short, so she wished that she could wither and droop under the gaze and company of her dear affectionate lover. However, in the end, all she could do was weep inside her heart and stare at the figure of her lover’s back.

 Why, the little prince, why? Why not be more patient? Why not stay and continue to take care of your proud but fragile rose, letting happiness shine bright on her four little thorns? Actually, deep inside my heart, I strongly believe that after all he has been through, the little prince, who tamed the fox, who spiritually returned to his hometown, will eventually understand how to love. Loving means responsibility. People who are long for love must learn to love and never hurt the people they love and want to love.

•The little prince and the king    

The king was the only resident on the first planet that the little prince travelled, Planet 325. Rumor had it that the king dominated everything, and all his orders could not be obeyed. But in fact, on the contrary, all he enjoyed was undeserved reputation. He could only let others do what they felt like to do. In the little prince’s adventures, he traveled six different planets, he came across six types of adults - - There were a conceited man, a tippler, a lamplighter, a geologist and a businessman besides the king. But the king was totally different from them. He was much more than just a stupid ruler. From his words, the readers can have a sip of his wisdom. He said to the little prince, "You shall judge yourself. That is the most difficult thing of all. It is much more difficult to judge oneself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom. "Introspection is a lifelong lesson that one should keep on learning. In our daily life, people judge others, giving them critics or complements, but there are always fewer comments on themselves. Just like what the king said, judging ourselves is the most difficult thing of all. We tend to be so tolerant to ourselves while being picky about others that we omit our own faults when being unable to forgive others’ faults. The king said, “Authority is based on the foundation of ration. You can never push others.” As a leader, what the king said can be a living proof of his wisdom and excellence of domination. What is ration? All men are born to be emotional. Less or more, we are affected by our emotion, which is exactly why there are rules in people’s relationships, why there are stipulations in management and why there are laws in our society. This is ration, and only by being rational can authority be recognized and advocated to the largest extent.

The king is lonely on the planet. His kingdom is too small to store a wagon. This old king had never patrolled his own domain because of his aged body, so he just stayed on his simple but dignified throne all the time, waiting for his subjects.

The little prince yawned due to his weariness during the travel, which made the king unhappy because he considered it as impolite. The little prince explained, saying that he could not help but did that. In this case, the king however, said he had not seen anyone yawn for a long time and that he thought it was interesting. What kind of person will consider yawning interesting? He must be so empty inside.

When the little prince wanted to go, the king wanted him to stay there, making him a minister to judge an old rat. This is ridiculous, but also reflects the king’s loneliness is so deep. No one was willing to stay with him, and maybe other previous travelers had hurt him the same way for many times. His sadness between the lines was deep into bones. Maybe loneliness and sadness are the main reasons to his ridiculous persistence towards his dominance, because he wanted so much to prove that he was not lonely. The little prince saw it through, so when he left, he hesitated, he signed, because he did not want the king to be sad one more time. From this, we can again feel the kindness of the little prince.

Gist:

(1)Look for the nature and essence of life from the viewpoint of children.

The little prince always looks through the surface of life with his innocent, curious heart, and digs right into the soul, finding the true meaning of living out.

(2)Get to understand the real meaning of having relationships during the process of loving and being responsible.

(3)Criticize the grown-ups’ world.

The book reflects the grown-ups’ vanity, blindness and arrogance. Also, it expresses their loneliness between the lines - - and there are done by using children’s tone. The book is full of critics about adults’ logics, making readers feel the deep sadness of losing their spiritual home.

Conclusion:

“Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.” From this book, we can learn a lot. Love is mutual; we should get to know the vitality of responsibility and never let those who we love feel lonely and empty.

 Life actually is also a fairy tale. All the happiness and sorrow are worth collecting. Only when we understand the books for children and find out happiness and joy inside of life, can we truly enjoy our life.

2016-01-13

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