LE PETIT PRINCE

After leaving his home planet and his beloved rose, the little prince journeys around the universe, ending up on Earth. Frequently perplexed by the behavior of grown-ups, the prince symbolizes the hope, love, innocence, and insight of childhood that lie dormant in all of us, Though the prince is sociable and meets a number of characters as he travels, he never stops loving and missing the rose on his home planet.

A lonely pilot who, while stranded in the desert, befriends the little prince. They spend eight days together in the desert before the little prince returns to his home planet. Although he is discouraged from drawing early in his life because adults cannot understand his drawings, the narrator illustrates his own story and makes several drawings for the little prince. The narrator is grown-up, but his view of the world is more like a child's than an adult's. After the little prince departs, the narrator feels both refreshed and saddened.

"S'il vous plaît... dessine-moi un mouton..."

"Ça c'est la caisse. Le mouton que tu veux est dedans."

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"If you please... draw me a sheep..."

​"This is only his box. The sheep you asked for is inside."

A king inhabited the first planet. A king who claims to rule the entire universe, yet the king's power is empty. He is able to command people to do only what they already would do.

The second planet was inhabited by a vain man. A lonely vain man who craves admiration from all who pass by. However, only by being alone is he assured of being the richest and best-looking man on his planet.

The elderly geographer is the sixth and final character the little prince encounters before he lands on Earth. He who has not been anywhere or seen any of the things he records, provides a caricature of specialization in the contemporary world.​ Apparently well-read, he even refuses to learn about his own planet, saying it is a job for explorers.

The third person the little prince encounters is the drunkard, who spends his days and nights lost in a stupor. The drunkard is a sad figure, but he is also foolish for he drinks to forget that he is ashamed of drinking.

The businessman is the fourth encounter. Too busy to even greet his visitor and blind to the beauty of the stars, he counts them endlessly and catalogs them in order to "own" them all.

The fifth and most complex figure the prince encounters is the lamplighter. On a planet so small, a full day lasts a minute. He wastes his life blindly following orders to extinguish and relight the lamppost every 30 seconds to correspond with his planet's day and night. His selfless devotion to his orders earns him the little prince's admiration. Of all the adults the little prince encounters before reaching Earth, the lamplighter is the only one the prince thinks he could befriend.

Although the fox asks the little prince to tame him, the fox is in some ways the more knowledgeable of the two characters, and he helps steer the prince toward what is important in life. In the secret the fox tells the little prince before they say their good-byes, the fox sums up up three important lessons: only the heart can see; the prince's time away from his planet made him appreciate his rose more; and love entails responsibility.

The snake is the first character the prince meets on Earth, who ultimately sends the prince back to the heavens by biting him. A constant enigma, where one wonders can a snake ever be trusted?

The rose is a coquettish flower who has trouble expressing her love for the little prince and consequently drives him away. Simultaneously vain and naïve, she informs the little prince of her love for him too late to persuade him to stay home and not to travel. Throughout the story, she occupies the prince's thoughts and heart.