What book would you bring if you were stranded on a desert island?

I don’t have to think twice. I’d definitely take a tale under 100 pages that will make me travel the universe and remind me of the essence of human nature. The Little Prince.

Hey, that’s a simple children’s book, you might say. And it’s overrated. Hmm, are you sure that a book banned by an authoritarian regime could be just another fairy tale? 

Let’s see what gems it is hiding. 

To Léon Werth

I ask for the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up.
I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world.
I have another reason: this grown-up understands everything, even books about children.
I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up.
If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-up grew. All grown-ups were once children–although few of them remember it. And so I correct my dedication:

To Léon Werth

When he was a little boy

– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Did you know?

The Little Prince is the second most translated book in the world after the Bible. It is translated into 457 languages, including Klingon and Ancient Egyptian. The heart-touching story about the Little Prince and his beloved rose was adapted to different art forms such as movies, cartoons, and opera. 

But what makes this book so special?

The Little Prince is much more than a children’s book. In fact, I deeply believe it was specially created for adults… who forgot that they were once children. Children, the author believes, have the keys to understanding life. Unfortunately, we happen to grow up and forget everything. Let The Little Prince be our reminder of some of our long-forgotten values.

On the Little Planet’s little asteroid B612, whose name might be one of the allusions to the author’s passion for aircraft and flying, there are two plants: baobabs and a rose.  The little prince took special care of his rose, put her under glass, and watered her. The baobabs, however,  represent a threat to the asteroid. The author used the dangerous baobab trees as a symbol of the Nazi regime. As the baobab trees threatened to destroy the little prince’s home, ideologies such as Nazism are able to destroy the whole planet if they are not eradicated quickly.

“It is a question of discipline….When you’ve finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest care. You must see to it that you pull up regularly all the baobabs, at the very first moment when they can be distinguished from the rose bushes which they resemble so closely in their earliest youth…”

– The Little Prince

Ideologies may look attractive at the beginning, promising miraculous solutions to all problems. However, once they take root, they can cause the earth to split apart. Be careful when you see rose bushes, they may be baobabs. 

You can now understand better why the author was exiled and the book was banned in France during the Vichy regime, a government that established itself in the unoccupied “free zone” during World War II, collaborating with Nazi Germany. 

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry didn’t live to see The Little Prince published in his home country as he died in 1944, one year before the end of the war.

Autobiographical elements such as the plane crash in Sahara are based on the author’s plane crash in Egypt, described in his 1939 book “Wind, Sand, and Stars”. The rose may be another reference to the author’s private life, inspired by his beloved Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry.

More to follow about the woman who inspired the rose character in the Little Prince in the next post!

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.”

The rose, despite being vain and naïve, represents true love. The little prince knew she was one in a million, worth spending time on, and expecting nothing in return. 

“People where you live,” the little prince said, “grow five thousand roses in one garden… yet they don’t find what they’re looking for…

“They don’t find it,” I answered.

“And yet what they’re looking for could be found in a single rose, or a little water…”

“Of course,” I answered.

And the little prince added, “But eyes are blind. You have to look with the heart.” 

The rose symbolizes love, creation, and prosperity, while the baobabs incarnate hatred and destruction.

Nothing changed since the Little Prince first visited our planet Earth. He was disappointed to see absurdities, and I am not sure he would like it better if he returned.

We need to get rid of the baobabs and spend more time on our roses.

Was this content useful?