The fantasy book "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is told by a narrator who crashes his airplane in the middle of the Sahara Desert. As he is feeling all is lost, he meets a little young, but wise, man who calls himself the little prince from a different world. The two of them go on to have a conversation which lasts many day and nights until the narrator is down to his last drop of water.
This book was written in 1943, a time when the world was at war. It was also a period where the world was becoming smaller because of the increase in airplanes. The author's inspiration to write the book was a life time experience put together. While he was lying in the hospital bed because of his injuries from dehydration after crashing his plane in the middle of the Sahara Desert, he read the book "The Little Mermaid"1. This made him want to make a fairytale where his life was the book. The rose represents his wife, Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry. The small home planet of the little prince and rose was supposed to represent El Salvador which is also known as "The Land of Volcanoes". This was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's wife's home country and is why the home planet of the little prince and rose has multiple volcanoes. The fox in the story that explains what taming and love is, is a fennec that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry raised and adored while doing his service as an air pilot. The baobabs which the little prince hated and feared because of how fast they grew to take over your planet, were supposed to represent the Nazi's who were trying to take over the planet. Finally when the little prince is reassuring the pilot that his dying body is just an empty shell, like it says one page 86 "...it will be like an old abandoned shell....", this is meant to represent his dying younger brother François' last words"2.
In the book "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, he tells a story very close to him about a crashed pilot in the middle of the Sahara Desert who meets an alien who calls himself the little prince. The author sugar coats his personal experiences to express that we can make anything ordinary unique and special. Maybe not to others but to us since we are the ones who nurtured and cared for it or as the fox says, tames it.
Bibliography:
1 http://www.thelittleprince.com/work/birth-of-the-book/
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Saint- Exup%C3%A9ry
Very explanatory response! You connected the author's real life experiences to the story really easily and smoothly, and the fact that you had prior knowledge about the author shows that you really put a lot of effort into it. You also used many details from the text, which is great. But next time, you might want to include more opinions in your response, because this response is mostly fact-based and doesn't show any of your own thoughts or words.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Jolene's response. I love how you you included information about the authors past! It was very informative and shows how you really understood the book. As well as learning about the book I learned about how the author was inspired which I find very interesting!
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