Chapter-8

The Elements
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
flew his airmail carrier
between these two
continents.
This is an extract from
‘Wind, Sand and Stars’,
an autobiographical work
by Antoine de Saint-
Exupery. The book
recounts a series of
events that the author
faced when he was
working for the airmail
carrier, Aeropostale. He
flew across the African
Sahara and south
American Andes.
About the author

Antoine de Saint-Exupery
was a French writer and
aviator. His best known
work is ‘The Little Prince’.
He has written a number of
books about his flying
experiences.
My story of the different elements began
when Joseph Conrad described a storm.
(Joseph Conrad was an English novelist and
short-story writer of Polish descent.)
For me, the cyclone was the most brutal and
overwhelming experience of my entire life.
I had taken off from the field at Trelew
(Trelew is a city in the eastern part of the
Chubut Province of Argentina. Located in
Patagonia, the city is the largest and most
populous in the low valley) and was flying
down to Argentina.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND

Here the earth’s crust is
as dented as an old
boiler. The high-pressure
region over the Pacific
send the winds past a
gap in the Andes. These
winds go into a corridor
fifty miles wide through
which they rush to the
Atlantic at an accelerated
rate, eating up everything
in their path.
The whole area looked like a barren
landscape after a forest fire. The
mountains in these areas have
become razor-edged and bare due to
the continuous strong winds. The
strong winds swept over the hills and
left only gravel behind. These winds
lasted only for about an hour, but left
us exhausted. We felt like we had
done a lot of manual labour. Our
muscles hurt so much that we felt like
we had been carrying a heavy load.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

The machines stood bravely against the storm, so we
were not too worried about the wings dropping down.
Visibility was also good, so that was not a problem. The
sky was blue. Pure blue. But on this day I did not like
the colour of the sky. Maybe, I could sense the danger.
The purity of the sky upset me. I would not mind a
good black storm as it meant that the enemy was
visible.
But, today the sky was blue, so blue that I
could see the mountain peaks without haze,
mist, or a sandy fog blocking my vision. To
everyone, it would seem like a perfect day
for flying. But, to a pilot, there are some
secret signs that tell him about real storms.
There was no rolling, no pitching, just a little tremor. And then, there was chaos everywhere
around me. I don’t have words to express what happened or how I felt.
The plane was still even with the engine on full force. We were not moving. We were trapped in
a cyclone which was moving at the rate of hundred and fifty miles per hour. As a matter of fact, I
was being sucked down towards the ground. I was surrendering to the enemy.
I was imprisoned in a valley. I couldn’t see a horizon.
Two thoughts entered my mind. One, I could
understand the cause of accidents when there was no
fog. Two, the sea was flat and we were soon
approaching it. But first, I would have to face the gale
off the peak of the Salamanca Mountains. While I was
thinking about what I should do, I was struck by the
gale and thrown out into the sea. This was unlike
anything I had ever imagined. I had not flown out to
the sea, I had been spat out like a cough and I was
already five miles into the sea. The coastline was blur.
My plane was hanging sixty feet above the water and I
could not move. I was struggling against the wind.
For the first time, I was worried
about my wings giving up. I was
also scared that I would bump
into the sea and at that speed, it
would be impossible for me to
survive. Every time the plane
turned, I was scared that it would
not straighten up. There was also
a high chance of running out of
fuel. I hung on to the controls for
dear life. My mind had turned
blank. The situation seemed
hopeless. The only thing I could
do was to keep the plane straight.
After some miles of travelling in this state, I felt
that the urgency of the wind had declined. I was
approaching areas of calm. Slowly, as I
progressed, my mind became clear and the ability
to feel and think came back to me. I realised that
if I could fly upwards, I had a chance of escaping. I
started flying upwards, but it was not so easy. The
enemy was still strong.
My hands had become numb. I had been gripping
the wheel with all my might and they had lost all
sensation. I was afraid. My focus shifted from the
cyclone to my hands. My mind was giving
commands and waiting for my hands to respond. I
was scared that if my hand left the wheel, I would
be unable to control the plane. ‘I shut my hands. I
shut my hands,’ I kept on repeating. My strength
was draining out. I was tired. My shoulders ached.
Any minute now, I would give up.
In an hour and twenty minutes, I had succeeded in climbing to nine
hundred feet. It was very stormy, but nothing like the cyclone I had
come out of. Finally it was over. I saw a platoon of soldiers on the
ground below, looking up at me. They had come looking for me. I
managed to land nearby.
It took us nearly an hour to get the plane
into the hanger. I cannot remember what
happened after that. This is my story. That
would have been the end of my story, had
it actually been a story. There are no
words or feelings to describe the
experience. We often see natural disasters
on T.V., in movies, in documentaries but
none of it comes close to living through
the experience and witnessing it first
hand.
Ex.1: Word Meanings
1) Brutal: violent and cruel
2) Overwhelming: very great or very strong
3) Dented: a hollow place in a hard surface, usually made by hitting it.
4) Corridor: a long narrow passage
5) Accelerated: made something happen faster or earlier than expected.
6) Barren: soil or land not good enough for plants to grow on.
7) Razor-edged: sharp edged
8) Manual labour: work done by hand
9) Visibility: how far or well you can see
10) Haze: air that is difficult to see through
11) Tremor : a small earthquake in which the ground shakes slightly
12) Horizon: where the sky seems to meet the land or the sea; the
furthest that you can see
13) Gale: an extremely strong wind
14) Gripping: an act of holding somebody or something tightly
15) Sensation: the ability to feel through your sense of touch
16) Platoon: a small group of soldiers
IP: Write all the word meanings in your English
note book and revise for a Spell-O-Quiz
Spell-O-Quiz
• https://wordwall.net/resource/3645914
Ex.2: Answer the given questions in one sentence.
18.08.2020 IP: Now do this in your English notebooks
1. ‘The Elements’ is an extract from which book and who’s the author?
2. What was the author’s profession at the time?
3. What was the most brutal and overwhelming experience of the author’s life?
4. Why had the mountains in those areas become razor-edged?
5. From where did the author’s plane take off that day?
6. What was the colour of the sky?
7. What was the speed of the cyclone?
8. Why could the plane not move despite the engines on full force?
Ex.2: Answer Key
1. This is an extract from ‘Wind, Sand and Stars’, an autobiographical work by Antoine
de Saint-Exupery.
2. The author was working for the airmail carrier, Aeropostale.
3. The most brutal and overwhelming experience of the author was ‘the cyclone’.
4. The mountains in those areas had become razor-edged due to continuous strong winds.
5. The author’s plane took off from Trelew that day.
6. The colour of the sky was pure blue.
7. The speed of the cyclone was hundred and fifty miles per hour.
8. The plane could not move because it was trapped in a cyclone.