Comprehensive Study Notes on El Principito (The Little Prince)

Dedication and the Narrator’s Early Artistic Disillusionment

• Dedication to Leon Werth: The author dedicates the book to Leon Werth, offering three justifications for dedicating it to an adult:

  • He is the best friend the narrator has in the world.
  • He is capable of understanding everything, including children’s books.
  • He lives in France, where he suffers from hunger and cold and needs consolation.
  • The dedication is ultimately corrected to: "To Leon Werth when he was a child," acknowledging that all adults were once children, though few remember it.

• Drawing Number $1$: At the age of $6$, the narrator saw a magnificent image in a book about the virgin jungle titled Histories Vividas. The image depicted a boa constrictor swallowing a wild beast. The book explained that boa constrictors swallow their prey whole without chewing and then sleep for the $6$ months of their digestion. The narrator drew his first picture: a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. Adults, however, mistook the drawing for a hat.

• Drawing Number $2$: To clarify for adults, the narrator drew the interior of the boa constrictor, showing the elephant inside. Adults advised him to set aside drawings of boa constrictors (open or closed) and instead focus on geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar. This led the narrator to abandon a potential career as a painter at age $6$.

• Perspective on Adults: Throughout his life, the narrator has had many contacts with "serious people." He lived among adults and observed them closely, which did not improve his opinion of them. He used Drawing Number $1$ as a litmus test for those he found lucid. If they identified it as a hat, he would talk to them about "reasonable" things like bridge, golf, politics, and ties, rather than the virgin jungle or stars.

The Encounter in the Sahara Desert

• The Breakdown: Six years prior to the narration, the narrator had an engine failure in the Sahara Desert. He was alone, without a mechanic or passengers, and faced a life-or-death situation with only enough water for $8$ days.

• The Initial Meeting: On the first night, sleeping a thousand miles from any inhabited place, he was awakened at dawn by a small voice asking: ‐‐ ‐‐"Please… draw me a sheep!"‐‐ ‐‐ He encountered a small, extraordinary boy who looked neither lost nor exhausted by hunger, thirst, or fear.

• The Drawing Process:

  • The Boa Constrictor: Having never drawn a sheep, the narrator drew his standard "closed boa constrictor." The boy immediately recognized it: ‐‐ ‐‐"No, no! I don't want an elephant in a snake… in my land everything is small."‐‐ ‐‐
  • The Rejected Sheep:
    • The first sheep was rejected for looking too sick.
    • The second was identified as a ram because it had horns.
    • The third was rejected for being too old; the boy wanted a sheep that would live a long time.
  • The Final Solution: Frustrated and needing to fix his engine, the narrator drew a box and told the boy: ‐‐ ‐‐"This is the box. The sheep you want is inside."‐‐ ‐‐ The boy was delighted, noting that the sheep had fallen asleep.

Origin and Asteroid B $612$

• Planet of Origin: The narrator learns that the Little Prince’s planet is barely larger than a house. The narrator identifies this as Asteroid B $612$.

• History of the Asteroid:

  • It was sighted only once, in $1909$, by a Turkish astronomer.
  • The astronomer presented his findings at the International Congress of Astronomy, but no one believed him because of his traditional Turkish clothing.
  • In $1920$, after a Turkish dictator imposed European-style dress on the people under penalty of death, the astronomer re-presented his discovery in a formal suit and was universally accepted.

• Adults and Figures: The narrator notes that adults love numbers. They don't ask about the essence of a friend (voice tone, favorite games, butterfly collecting) but rather about age, siblings, weight, and the father’s income. If shown a house of pink brick with geraniums and doves, adults cannot imagine it unless told it is a house worth $100,000$ pesos.

• Retention and Memory: Mentioning the asteroid’s number is a concession to adults. The narrator writes the story to ensure he does not forget the Little Prince, noting that forgetting a friend is sad and that he doesn't want to become like adults who only care for figures. To this end, he bought a box of colored pencils for the first time since age $6$.

Environmental Hazards: The Baobabs

• The Threat: On the third day, the narrator learns about the "drama of the baobabs." Since sheep eat shrubs, the Little Prince hopes they will eat the tiny baobab sprouts.

• Baobab Growth: The narrator explains that baobabs are not shrubs but trees as large as churches. Even a herd of elephants could not finish a single baobab. The Little Prince points out that baobabs start small.

• Planetary Upkeep: The Little Prince’s planet has good soil (resulting in good seeds and plants) and bad soil (bad seeds). Seeds sleep in the earth until they sprout. If it is a radish or a rose, it can grow. If it is a "bad weed" like the baobab, it must be pulled up immediately. Because the planet is so small, if the baobabs are allowed to grow, their roots will pierce the planet and cause it to explode. The Prince describes this as a "matter of discipline."

Emotional Life and the Sunset

• The Power of Sunsets: On the fourth day, the narrator discovers the Prince’s love for sunsets. On the Prince’s tiny planet, one could see a sunset simply by moving a chair a few steps.

• Depression and Beauty: The Prince once watched the sun set $43$ times in a single day. He notes: ‐‐ ‐‐"When one is very sad, one likes to see sunsets."‐‐ ‐‐ When asked if he was very sad on the day of the $43$ sunsets, the Prince does not answer.

The Conflict Between Business and Sentiment

• The Thorns: On the fifth day, the Prince asks if sheep eat flowers with thorns. The narrator, struggling with a stuck bolt and a dwindling water supply, irritably says that thorns are just "pure malice" from flowers and serve no purpose.

• The Prince’s Outrage: The Prince accuses the narrator of talking like an adult. He argues that the war between sheep and flowers is far more serious than the sums of a "red-faced gentleman" (whom the Prince calls a "fungus"). The Prince explains that if he loves a unique flower that exists nowhere else, and a sheep eats it, it is as if all the stars went out.

• The Country of Tears: The Prince bursts into tears. The narrator drops his tools, realizing the bolt, the hammer, thirst, and death are unimportant compared to consoling the Prince. He promises to draw a muzzle for the sheep and armor for the flower.

The History of the Rose

• Growth and Vanity: A new seed arrived on the Prince's planet. He watched it carefully, fearing it was a baobab. It grew into a flower that was beautiful but very coquette. It took days to prepare its beauty, revealing itself only at sunrise.

• Demands and Tricks: The flower immediately asked for breakfast (water), a screen against the wind, and a glass globe (fanal) at night due to the cold. She claimed to come from a world without cold, a lie exposed by the fact that she grew from a seed on the Prince's planet.

• The Departure: Though the Prince loved her, her vanity made him unhappy. He felt he should have judged her by her actions (perfuming his life) rather than her words. He admits he was too young to know how to love her.

The Prince’s Departure and the First Three Planets

• Leaving Home: On the morning of his departure, the Prince cleaned his two active volcanoes and one extinct volcano. He pulled up the last baobab sprouts. When he said goodbye to the Rose, she apologized for her foolishness, confessed her love, and told him not to linger.

• The King (Asteroid $325$): The first planet was inhabited by a king in purple and ermine on a simple but majestic throne.

  • He saw the Prince as a "subject."
  • He claimed to rule over everything (planets, stars, the universe).
  • His authority was based on reason: ‐‐ ‐‐"Authority rests first of all on reason. If you order your people to jump into the sea, they will revolt."‐‐ ‐‐
  • He tried to make the Prince Minister of Justice to judge a "rat" that lived on the planet.

• The Vain Man (Asteroid $326$): The second planet was inhabited by a man who saw everyone as an admirer. He wore a strange hat for tipping when people cheered and demanded to be admired as the most beautiful, rich, and intelligent man on his planet, even though he was the only one there.

• The Drunkard (Asteroid $327$): The third planet was inhabited by a man sitting in silence with bottles. He explained he drank to forget that he was ashamed of drinking, a circular logic that left the Prince deeply melancholy.

Further Travels: Planets Four through Six

• The Businessman (Asteroid $328$): The fourth planet was inhabited by a man obsessed with counting.

  • He claimed to own the stars because he was the first to think of owning them.
  • His total count was $501,622,731$ "little things that shine."
  • Ownership meant he could put the numbers on a piece of paper and lock them in a drawer.
  • The Prince observed that while he was useful to his volcanoes and flower, the businessman was of no use to the stars.

• The Lamplighter (Asteroid $329$): The smallest planet. It had a street lamp and a lamplighter.

  • The "consigna" (order) was to light it at night and douse it in the morning.
  • Because the planet turned faster every year, reaching a rotation of once per minute, the lamplighter had to light and extinguish the lamp every $60$ seconds without rest.
  • The Prince respected him because he cared for something other than himself.

• The Geographer (Asteroid $330$): This planet was ten times larger. An old man wrote massive books but didn't know if his own planet had oceans or mountains because he was a geographer, not an explorer.

  • He explained that geographers only record "eternal" things.
  • They do not record flowers because they are "ephemeral" (threatened by near disappearance).
  • The Prince, hearing this, regretted leaving his flower but decided to visit Earth on the geographer's recommendation.

Arrival on Earth and the Desert Meeting

• Earth’s Scale: The narrator notes Earth is massive, with $111$ kings, $7,000$ geographers, $900,000$ businessmen, $7,500,000$ drunkards, and $311,000,000$ vain people ($2,000,000,000$ adults total).

• The Snake: In Africa, the Prince first encountered a golden snake. The snake noted that one can be lonely among men just as in the desert. It claimed to be more powerful than a king's finger and offered to "help" the Prince someday: ‐‐ ‐‐"Whomever I touch, I return to the earth from which they came."‐‐ ‐‐

• The Three-Petaled Flower: The Prince met a simple flower that had seen a caravan pass years ago. It believed there were only $6$ or $7$ men in existence and that they were inconvenienced by their lack of roots.

• The Mountain and the Echo: The Prince climbed a high mountain, hoping to see the whole planet, but saw only peaks and heard only an echo, which he mistook for lack of imagination in humans.

The Garden and the Fox

• The Fifty Hundred Roses: The Prince discovered a garden with $5,000$ roses. He felt crushed, believing his flower had lied about being the only one of its kind in the universe. He felt he was no "great prince" with only one ordinary rose and three knee-high volcanoes.

• Meeting the Fox: A fox appeared under an apple tree.

  • Taming: The fox explained that "to tame" means "to create ties."
  • Uniqueness: To the fox, the Prince was just one of $100,000$ boys, and to the Prince, the fox was one of $100,000$ foxes. But if tamed, they would be unique to each other.
  • Rituals: The fox insisted on the necessity of "rites" to make one hour or day different from another.

• The Secret: Before the Prince left, the fox shared a secret: ‐‐ ‐‐"Only with the heart can one see well; what is essential is invisible to the eyes."‐‐ ‐‐ He also told the Prince that he was responsible forever for what he had tamed (his rose).

The Final Days in the Desert

• The Railway Switchman: The Prince met a man who sorted travelers into groups of $1,000$. He noted that adults are never happy where they are, while children are the only ones who know what they are looking for.

• The Merchant: The Prince met a merchant selling pills that quench thirst to save $53$ minutes a week. The Prince thought that if he had $53$ extra minutes, he would walk slowly toward a fountain.

• The Well: On the eighth day of the breakdown, the narrator and the Prince went looking for a well in the desert. The narrator carried the sleeping Prince, reflecting that the boy's beauty comes from his fidelity to a flower. At dawn, they found a well that was complete with a pulley, bucket, and rope. The water was "good for the heart."

The Prince’s Departure

• The Plan: The Prince revealed that the next day was the anniversary of his arrival on Earth. He had returned to the spot where he first landed.

• The Gift of the Stars: The Prince told the narrator that when he looks at the sky, he should remember that the Prince is on one of the stars, laughing. This would make it feel as if all the stars were laughing: ‐‐ ‐‐"I will have given you a multitude of little bells that know how to laugh."‐‐ ‐‐

• The Bite: To return to his planet, which he deemed too far for his heavy body, the Prince allowed the yellow snake to bite him. He fell silently into the sand.

• Conclusion: Six years later, the narrator reveals he never found the Prince's body. He worries because he forgot to draw the leather strap for the sheep’s muzzle, wondering if the sheep has eaten the rose. He asks readers to look at the sky and, if they ever visit the African desert and see a golden-haired child who laughs and doesn't answer questions, to notify him immediately.