The Little Prince's Allegorical Anecdotes -- Ch. 1-6

Perhaps you will ask me, "Why are there no other drawing in this book as magnificent and impressive as this drawing of the _________________?"

The reply is simple. I have tried. But with the others I have not been successful. When I made the drawing of the _________________ I was carried beyond myself by the inspiring force of urgent necessity.

TO WHICH DRAWING IS OUR NARRATOR REFERRING?

• boa constrictor swallowing an elephant

• sheep

• baobab

• Turkish astronomer

• little prince

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Besides his clothing, what did the Turkish astronomer change in his second presentation to the International Astronomical Congress?

• He changed the name and the estimated size of the asteroid he had discovered.

• He changed his hypothesis that the asteroid was uninhabited.

• He changed specific details about the mineral composition of the asteroid.

• Nothing.

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Indeed, as I learned, there were on the planet where the little prince lived -- as on all planets -- good plants and bad plants. In consequence, there were good seeds from good plants, and bad seeds from bad plants. But seeds are invisible. They sleep deep in the heart of the earth's darkness, until some one among them is seized with the desire to awaken. Then this little seed will stretch itself and begin--timidly at first -- to push a charming little sprig inoffensively upward toward the sun. If it is only a sprout of radish or the sprig of a rose-bush, one would let it grow wherever it might wish. But when it is a bad plant, one must destroy it as soon as possible, the very first instant that one recognizes it.

Now there were some terrible seeds on the planet that was the home of the little prince; and these were the seeds of the baobab. The soil of that planet was infested with them. A baobab is something you will never, never be able to get rid of if you attend to it too late. It spreads over the entire planet. It bores clear through it with its roots. And if the planet is too small, and the baobabs are too many, they split it in pieces . . .

BASED ON WHAT YOU LEARNED ABOUT ANTIONE DE SAINT-EXUPERY'S LIFE AND TIMES, WHAT DO THE BAOBABS MOST LIKELY REPRESENT?

• The steady rise of Hitler's Nazi party from nothing in the 1920s to taking over Europe (including France) by 1940.

• Airplane technology -- which grew from invention to advancement to being used as war machines by WWI.

• His own life -- since, like a baobab seed, Saint-Exupery considered himself to be a blight on humanity.

• The craft of writing a book, which begins as an idea and, with time and sunshine, sprouts into a beautiful flower.

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Which sheep depiction requires the most imagination (or inference) on behalf of the viewer/reader?

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"I am always thinking that I am at home!" Just so.

Everybody knows that when it is noon in the United States the sun is setting over France. If you could fly to France in one minute, you could go straight into the sunset, right from noon. Unfortunately, France is too far away for that. But on your tiny planet, my little prince, all you need do is move your chair a few steps. You can see the day end and the twilight falling whenever you like . . .

"One day," you said to me, "I saw the sunset forty-four times!"

And a little later you added: "You know--one loves the sunset, when one is so sad . . ."

"Were you so sad, then?" I asked, "on the day of the forty-four sunsets?"

But the little prince made no reply.

WHICH OF THESE AUTHORIAL DETAILS BEST MATCHES THE UNDERLYING MEANING OF THE ANECDOTE ABOVE?

• Saint-Exupery wrote The Little Prince (1943) while he was a refugee in the US, since France had been under German occupation for three years.

• In 1998, a fisherman in the Mediterranean discovered the bracelet worn by Saint-Exupery, and eventually his plane was located at the bottom of the ocean.

• Saint-Exupery and his wife Consuelo had a turbulent marriage.

• Saint-Exupery had several airplane crashes in his life, many of which caused lasting and painful injuries.

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If you were to say to the grown-ups: "I saw a beautiful house made of rosy brick, with geraniums in the windows and doves on the roof," they would not be able to get any idea of that house at all. You would have to say to them: "I saw a house that cost $20,000." Then they would exclaim: "Oh, what a pretty house that is!"

Just so, you might say to them: "The proof that the little prince existed is that he was charming, that he laughed, and that he was looking for a sheep. If anybody wants a sheep, that is a proof that he exists." And what good would it do to tell them that? They would shrug their shoulders, and treat you like a child. But if you said to them: "The planet he came from is Asteroid B-612," then they would be convinced, and leave you in peace from their questions.

They are like that. One must not hold it against them. Children should always show great forbearance toward grown-up people.

But certainly, for us who understand life, figures are a matter of indifference. I should have liked to begin this story in the fashion of the fairy-tales. I should have like to say: "Once upon a time there was a little prince who lived on a planet that was scarcely any bigger than himself, and who had need of a sheep . . ."

To those who understand life, that would have given a much greater air of truth to my story.

For I do not want anyone to read my book carelessly. I have suffered too much grief in setting down these memories.

READ THE ABOVE (FROM CH.6) CLOSELY. WHAT DO YOU RECOGNIZE ABOUT ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY'S AUTHORIAL MOTIVE FOR THIS SECTION? JUSTIFY WITH DETAILS.

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