THE LITTLE PRINCE

CHAPTER 1

 True Stories
- a book about the jungle where the 6-year-old narrator saw a picture of a boa
constrictor swallowing a beast.

 Boa Constrictors
- swallow their prey whole w/o chewing, and get immobilized for 6 months and sleep.
The narrator was discouraged from being an artist because of the grown-ups’ disapproval to his
drawings #1 and #2.
The narrator would test a grown-up that seemed to be enlightened by showing them a picture
of his drawing #1, but all would answer “That’s a hat.” So he never talked to them about boa
constrictors, jungles, and stars. Instead, he’d talk to them about golf, bridge, ties, and politics.

CHAPTER 2

 Sahara Desert
- where the narrator, as a pilot, made a crash landing 6 years ago.

 The Little Prince

- “Please, draw me a sheep.” This is what he said when waking up the narrator.
- “The place where I live, everything is very small.” A phrase he kept repeating.
- Once he asks a question, he never lets go of it.
This chapter is when the narrator made the acquaintance of the little prince.

CHAPTER 3
The little prince says things that hint he’s from a different planet.
The narrator suggests tying up the sheep so that it doesn’t get lost and doesn’t try to
wander off, but the little prince remarks seriously: “Even if he did, everything’s so small where I
live!” and adds, a bit sadly: “Straight ahead, you can’t go very far.”
CHAPTER 4

 Asteroid B-612
- sighted by a Turkish astronomer in 1909.

 International Astronomical Congress

- where the Turkish astronomer made a demonstration of his discovery (Asteroid B-
612); no one believed him because of the way he was dressed.

 1920
- when the Turkish astronomer repeated his demonstration wearing a very elegant suit;
everyone believed him.
The planet the Little Prince came from was hardly bigger than a house.
Grown-ups are only interested in numbers and cannot imagine anything otherwise; children
must be understanding of them.

CHAPTER 5

 The Drama of the Baobabs

- a story the narrator learned during the third day of his time with the prince.

 Baobab seeds
- considered terrible seeds on the little prince’s planet; once tended too late, you will
never get rid of it again.

 Baobabs
- it can overgrow the entire planet; if a planet is too small and has too many baobabs,
they make the planet burst to pieces.
There are good seeds and bad seeds. Good plants, from good seeds; bad plants, from bad
seeds. The seeds are invisible, and sleep under the ground until it decides to wake up. If a seed
of a bad plant sprouts, you must pull it out as soon as you recognize it.
CHAPTER 6

 Sunsets
- the Little Prince’s only pleasure (the narrator learned about this on the fourth day).
In the Little Prince’s tiny planet, you could watch the twilight whenever you wanted to; all you
have to do is move your chair a few feet.
“One day I saw the sun set forty-four times! You know, when you’re feeling very sad,
sunsets are wonderful…”
“On the day of the forty-four times, were you feeling very sad?”
The little prince didn’t answer.

CHAPTER 7
On the fifth day, the Little Prince asked: “If a sheep could eat flowers that have thorns, what
good are thorns?”
“Thorns are no good for anything—they’re just the flowers’ way of being mean!”
“Then do you think flowers…”
“No, not at all! I don’t think anything! I just said whatever came into my head. I’m busy
here with something serious!”
“’Something serious’! You talk like the grown-ups! You confuse everything… you’ve got it
all mixed up! I know a planet inhabited by a red-faced gentleman. He’s never smelled a
flower. He’s never looked at a star. He’s never loved anyone. He’s never done anything
except add numbers. And all day long, he says over and over, just like you, ‘I’m a serious
man!’ And that puffs him up with pride. But he’s not a man at all—he’s a mushroom!”
After stating the words below, the Little Prince burst out sobbing. Night had fallen. And the
narrator turned to console the Little Prince.
“If someone loves a flower of whice just one example exists among all the millions and
millions of stars, that’s enough to make him happy when he looks at the stars. He tells
himself, ‘My flower’s up there somewhere…’ But if the sheep eats the flower, then for his
it’s as if, suddenly, all the stars went out. And that isn’t important?”
“The flower you love is not in danger… I’ll draw you a muzzle for your sheep… I’ll draw
you a fence for your flower… I…”
CHAPTER 8

 A Rose (The Flower)

- a vain flower born the same time as the sun; she carefully selected her colors and
adjusted her petals one by one.
- by the time the little prince left, she had four thorns.
The flowers in the Little Prince’s planets were very simple; they would appear one morning in
the grass, and fade by nightfall. But one had grown from a seed, and it was not like the other
flowers.
She, the flower, was very vain and tomented him with her touchy vanity.
The Little Prince had come to mistrust the flower, after all its inconsequential remarks and left
it.
“I shouldn’t have listened to her. Mine perfumed my planet, but I didn’t know how to
enjoy that. In those days, I didn’t understand anything. I should have judged her
according to her actions, not her words. She perfumed my planet and lit up my life. I
should have never run away!
“I ought to have realized the tenderness underlying her silly pretensions. Flowers are so
contradictory! But I was too young to know how to love her.”

CHAPTER 9

 Migration of wild birds

- what the little prince used to make his escape.

 Two active volcanoes, one extinct volcano

- he carefully raked them before leaving; the active volcanoes were convenient for
warming his breakfast.
He uprooted the final baobab shoots and watered the flower one last time. As he lowered the
glass case, he felt like crying.
“Good-bye,” he said to the flower. “…”
“Good-bye,” he repeated. The flower coughed, but not because she had a cold.
“I’ve been silly. I ask your forgiveness. Try to be happy.
“Of course I love you, it was my fault you never knew. It doesn’t matter. But you were
just as silly as I was. Try to be happy… put that thing down. I don’t want it anymore.”
She didn’t want him to see her crying. She was a proud flower.
CHAPTER 10

 Asteroids 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, and 330

- he visited these asteroids to keep himself busy and to learn something.

 Asteroid 325
- the first planet; inhabited by a king, sitting on a simple yet majestic throne.

 The King
- a kindly man with reasonable commands; called the Little Prince a “subject.”
- he claimed to rule over everything: his planet, the other planets, the stars.
For kings, the world is extremely simplified: All men are subjects.
“If I commanded a general to fly from one flower to the next like a butterfly, or to write a
tragedy, or to turn into a seagull, and if the general did not carry out my command,
which of us would be in the wrong, the general or me?”
“You would be.”
“Exactly. One must command from each what each can perform. Authority is based first
of all upon reason.
The king couldn’t command the sun to set. The Little Prince yawned, and regretted his lost
sunset. And thus, he wanted to go on his way.
“I have nothing further to do here. I’m going to be on my way!”
“Do not leave! I shall make you my minister of… of justice!”
“But there’s no one here to judge!”
“Then you shall pass judgment on yourself. That is the hardest thing of all. It is much
harder to judge yourself than to judge others. If you succeed in judging yourself, it’s
because you are truly a wise man. Or there is an old rat living on my planet. From time
to time, you will condemn him to death.
“But I can judge myself anywhere, and I don’t like condemning anyone to death. I think
I’ll be on my way now.”
“No-,”
“If Your Majesty desires to be promptly obeyed, he should give me a reasonable
command.”
 The king made no answer. The Little Prince, with a sigh, took his leave.
“I make you my ambassador!” the king hastily shouted. But the Little Prince didn’t turn
back.

CHAPTER 11

 Asteroid 326
- the second planet; inhabited by a very vain man.
- the Little Prince’s visit to this planet was much more entertaining than the last.

 The Vain Man

- called the Little Prince an “admirer.”
- his hat was for answering acclamations, despite no one coming to his planet.
To vain men, other people are admirers. Vain men never hear anything but praise.
“Do you really admire me a great deal?”
“What does that mean—admire?”
“To admire means to acknowledge that I am the handsomest, the best-dressed, the
richest, and the most intelligent man on the planet.”
“But you’re the only man on your planet!”
“Do me this favor. Admire me all the same.”
“I admire you,” said the little prince, with a little shrug of his shoulders, “but what is
there about my admiration that interests you so much?” And the little prince went on his
way.

CHAPTER 12

 Asteroid 327
- the third planet; inhabited by a drunkard.
- the Little Prince’s visit to this planet, despite being very brief, plunged him into a deep
depression.

 The Drunkard
- a gloomy man ashamed of his drinking.
 “What are you doing there?”
“Drinking.”
“Why are you drinking?”
“To forget.”
“To forget what?”
“To forget that I’m ashamed.”
“What are you ashamed of?”
“… Of drinking,” concluded the drunkard, withdrawing into silence for good. And the
little prince went on his way, puzzled.

CHAPTER 13

 Asteroid 328
- the fourth planet; inhabited by a businessman.

 The Businessman
- a person so busy he didn’t raise his head when the little prince arrived.
- he was counting numbers; probably doing work.
- the red-headed mushroom man the Little Prince mentioned back in chapter 7.
“For the fifty-four years I’ve inhabited this planet, I’ve been interrupted only three times.
The first time was twenty-two years ago, when I was interrupted by a beetle that had
fallen onto my desk from god knows where. It made a terrible noise and I made four
mistakes in my calculations.
The second time was eleven years ago, when I was interrupted by a fit of rheumatism. I
don’t get enough exercise. The third time is… right now! Where was I? Five-hundred-
and-one million…”
But the little prince didn’t let go of his question.
“Million what?”
“Oh, of those little golden things you sometimes see in the sky.”
“Stars?”
 “Yes, that’s it. Stars.”
“And what do you do with five-hundred million stars?”
“Five-hundred-and-one-million, six-hundred-twenty-two thousand, seven hundred thirty-
one (501,622,731). I’m a serious person, and I’m accurate.
“And what do you do with those stars?”
“Nothing. I own them.”
“How can someone own the stars?
“To whom do them belong?!”
“I don’t know. To nobody.”
“Then they belong to me, because I thought of it first.
“That’s true enough. And what do you do with them?”
“I manage them. I count them and then count them again,” the businessman said. “It’s
difficult work. But I’m a serious person!”
The little prince was still not satisfied. “If I own a scarf, I can tie it around my neck and
take it away. If I own a flower, I can pick it and take it away. But you can’t pick the
stars!”
“No, but I can put them in the bank.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means that I write the number of my stars on a slip of paper. And then I lock that
slip of paper in a drawer.”
The little prince thought it was amusing, but not very serious.
“I own a flower myself, which I water every day. I own three volcanoes, which I rake out
every week. I even rake out the extinct one. You never know. So it’s of some use to my
volcanoes, and it’s useful to my flower, that I own them. But you’re not useful to the
stars.”
The little prince went on with his journey.

CHAPTER 14

 Asteroid 329
- the fifth planet; smallest of them all.
 - inhabited by a lamplighter.

 The Lamplighter
- a man who is very faithful to orders.
- has orders to light his street lamp after dark, and put it out in the morning; since his
planet is very small, he does both in a matter of seconds.
- said to be less absurd than the king, the vain man, the businessman, and the drunkard.
- the only man that the Little Prince might have wanted as a friend.
- “When he lights his lamp, it’s as if he’s bringing one more star to life, or one more
flower. When he puts out his lamp, he sends the flower or the star to sleep. Which is a
fine occupation, and therefore very useful.” – the Little Prince.
The Little Prince asked the Lamplighter of his orders in lighting and putting the lamp out.
“Orders haven’t changed. That’s just the trouble! Year by year the planet is turning
faster and faster, and orders haven’t changed!”
“Which means?”
“Which means that now that the planet revolves once a minute, I don’t have an instant’s
rest. I light my lamp and turn it out once every minute!”
“That’s funny! Your days here are one minute long!”
“It’s not funny at all,” the lamplighter said. “You and I have already been talking to each
other for a month.”
“A month?”
“Yes. Thirty minutes. Thirty days! Good evening.”
The Little Prince suggested a way for the lamplighter to take a rest (by walking around the
planet so that he’ll always be in the sun), but the lamplighter replied with “What good does
that do to me, when all I want to do is sleep?”
Though the Little Prince did not admit this, he most regretted leaving this planet because it was
blessed with one thousand, four hundred forty (1,440) sunsets every twenty-four hours!
CHAPTER 15

 Asteroid 330
- the sixth planet; ten times bigger than the last.
- a majestic planet, according to the Little Prince.
- inhabited by an old gentleman geographer who wrote enormous books.

 The Geographer
- referred to the Little Prince as an “explorer.”
“Where do you come from?” the old gentleman asked him.
“What’s that big book? What do you do with it?” asked the little prince.
“I’m a geographer.”
“And what’s a geographer?”
“A scholar who knows where the seas are, and the rivers, the cities, the mountains, and
the deserts.”
“That is very interesting. Here at last is someone who has a real profession!”
The Little Prince, never having seen a planet as majestic as this, turned to ask the geographer
about it.
“Your planet is very beautiful. Does it have any oceans?”
“I couldn’t say.”
“Oh. And mountains?”
“I couldn’t say.”
“And cities and rivers and deserts?”
“I couldn’t tell you that, either.”
“But you’re a geographer!”
“That’s right, but I’m not an explorer. There’s not one explorer on my planet. A
geographer doesn’t go out to describe cities, rivers, mountains, seas, oceans, and
deserts. But he receives the explorers, questions them, and he writes down what they
 remember. And if the memories of one of the explorers seem interesting to him, then the
geographer conducts an inquiry into that explorer’s moral character.”
The geographer then asked the Little Prince where he came from. The Little Prince described his
home planet, his volcanoes and his flower. But the geographer said that the flower musn’t be
included, for it is ephemeral. And the Little Prince felt regret for leaving her all alone.
“Where would you advise me to visit?” asked the Little Prince.
“The planet Earth. It has a good reputation.”
And the little prince went on his way, thinking about his flower.

CHAPTER 16

 Earth
- the seventh planet that contains:
i. 111 kings
ii. 7,000 geographers
iii. 900,000 businessmen
iv. 7,500,000 drunkards
v. 311,000,000 vain men
- over 6 continents, 462,511 lamplighters maintained the lamps, before the invention of
electricity. Their turns were:
i. New Zealand and Australia
ii. China and Siberia
iii. Russia and India
iv. Africa and Europe
v. South America and North America
vi. Then the North Pole and South Pole, that only needed the lamps to be worked
on twice a year.

CHAPTER 17
Here was when the Little Prince reached Earth, and saw a moon-colored loop uncoiled
on the sand (it was a snake.)

CHAPTER 18
  Flower with three petals
- told the little prince that there are 6 or 7 people, and that the wind blows them away.
CHAPTER 19
The Little Prince climbed a high mountain. And when he tried to speak on top of it, his
voice echoed back.
“People here have no imagination. They repeat whatever you say to them. Where I live I
had a flower. She always spoke first…” – The Little Prince.

CHAPTER 20
The Little Prince walked a long time through sand and rocks and snow, and discovered a
blossoming rose garden. The Little Prince gazed at them. All of them looked like his flower.
“Who are you?” asked the Little Prince.
“We’re roses.”
And he felt very unhappy. His flower had told him she was the only one of her kind in the whole
universe, but there were five thousand of them in just one garden!
She would be annoyed, he said to himself, if she saw this… She would cough terribly and
pretend to be dying, to avoid being laughed at.
I thought I was rich because I had just one flower, and all I own is an ordinary rose. That
and my three volcanoes. It doesn’t make me much of a prince.
The Little Prince lay down in the grass and wept.

CHAPTER 21

 The Fox
- he appeared under the apple tree.
The fox said that he can’t play with the Little Prince because he’s untamed.
“What does tamed mean?”
“It’s something that’s been too often neglected. It means, ‘to create ties.’”
“‘To create ties’?”
 “That’s right. For me you’re only a little boy just like a hundred thousand other little
boys.
And I have no need of you. And you have no need of me, either. For you I’m only a fox
like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, we’ll need each other. You’ll be
the only boy in the world for me. I’ll be the only fox in the world for you.
“I’m beginning to understand,” the little prince said.
“There’s a flower… I think she’s tamed me…”
The fox, then, asked to be tamed. He guided the Little Prince on how to tame him: by showing
up every 4 o’ clock in the after noon so that he’d be happy by 3, and by being very patient.
When the time was near and the Little Prince would be leaving soon, the fox taught him the
importance of the flower he raised in his planet, that 5,000 other roses will never be like the
rose he had.
“You’re not at all like my rose. You’re nothing at all yet. No one has tamed you and you
haven’t tamed anyone. You’re the way my fox was. He was just a fox like a hundred
thousand others. But I’ve made him my friend, and now he’s the only fox in all the world.
“You’re lovely, but you’re empty. One couldn’t die for you. Of course, an ordinary
passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more
important than all of you together, since she’s the one I’ve watered. Since she’s the one I
put under glass. Since she’s the one I sheltered behind a screen. Since she’s the one for
whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three for butterflies). Since she’s the one
I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she
said nothing at all. Since she’s my rose.”
And he went back to the fox.
“One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes. It’s
the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important.
“People have forgetten this truth, but you musn’t forget it. you become responsible
forever for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible for your rose.”
The Little Prince repeats the fox’s words. And then he went on his way.
 ABOUT THE STORY
The Little Prince perceives grown-ups as narrow-minded, while children are more open-minded
and willing to explore the world.

AUTHOR Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

GENRE Fable, allegory

TIME AND PLACE The summer and fall of 1942, while Saint-
WRITTEN Exupéry was living in Long Island, New York

POINT OF VIEW First-person

PROTAGONISTS The Little Prince and the Pilot

The dangers of narrow-mindedness,

THEME enlightenment through exploration,
relationships teach responsibility.
When it comes to the little prince, solemn
TONE and bittersweet.
When it comes to the adult world, blunt and
regretful.
The childlike perspectives of the prince and,
CONFLICT to some extent, those of the narrator are in
conflict with the stifling beliefs of the adult
world.
After he believes he has been spurned by his
rose, the prince travels to neighboring
RISING ACTION planets and eventually lands on Earth. He
wanders through the desert in search of
humans, and he is found by the fox.
The fox teaches the little prince his secret,
 CLIMAX and the little prince realizes the value of his
rose.
“It is only with the heart that one can see
MORAL (OR THEME) rightly: what is essential is invisible to the
eye.”

SYMBOLISM
The Stars

 As a pilot, the narrator attaches importance to stars because he depends upon them for
navigation.
 After the narrator meets the little prince, he finds the stars hold new meaning for him
because he knows that the prince lives among them.

The Desert

 The novel is set in the Sahara Desert, a barren place ready to be shaped by experience.
The desert is also a hostile space that contains no water and a deadly serpent.
 The desert symbolizes the narrator’s mind. Made barren by grown-up ideas, the
narrator’s mind slowly expands under the guidance of the little prince.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

CHARACTERS
PROTAGONISTS:
The Little Prince

 One of the two protagonists of the story. After leaving his home planet and his beloved
rose, the prince journeys around the universe, ending up on Earth.
 The prince symbolizes the hope, love, innocence, and insight of childhood that lie
dormant in all of us. The prince is sociable and meets a number of characters as he
travels, but he never stops loving and missing the rose on his home planet.

The Narrator

 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.
 He was 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 a grown-up, but his view of the world is more like a child’s than
an adult’s.

OTHER CHARACTERS:
The Rose

 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.

The Fox

 Asked the prince to tame him.

 He is more knowledgeable than the prince and helps steer him toward what is
important in life.

The Snake

 The first character the prince meets on Earth, who ultimately sends the prince back to
the heavens by biting him.
 The snake speaks in riddles and evokes the snake of the Bible, which incites Adam and
Eve’s eviction from Eden by luring them into eating the forbidden fruit.

The Baobabs

 Baobabs, harmless trees on Earth, pose a great threat to smaller planets like the prince’s
if left unchecked.
 They represent the grave danger that can befall people who are too lazy or indifferent
to keep a wary eye on the world around them.

The King

 Inhabits the first planet that the Little Prince visited.

 He claims to rule the entire universe. While not unkindly, he is able to command people
to do only what they already would do.
The Vain Man

 Inhabits the second planet that the Little Prince visited.

 The vain man is lonely and craves admiration from those who pass by.

The Drunkard

 Inhabits the third planet that the Little Prince visited.

 He spends his days and nights lost in a stupor. The drunkard is a sad figure, but he is also
foolish because he drinks to forget that he is ashamed of drinking.

The Businessman

 Inhabits the fourth planet that the Little Prince visited.

 Too busy even to greet his visitor, the businessman owns all the stars yet cannot
remember what they are called and contributes nothing to them.
 The businessman is the only character the prince actively chastises.

The Lamplighter

 Inhabits the fifth planet that the Little Prince visited.

 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.

The Geographer

 Inhabits the sixth planet that the Little Prince visited.

 Although he is apparently well-read, he refuses to learn about his own planet, saying it
is a job for explorers.
 He recommends that the little prince visit Earth, and his comments on the ephemeral
nature of flowers reveal to the prince that his own flower will not last forever.

The Roses in the Rose Garden

  The sight of the rose garden first leads the prince to believe that his flower is not, in fact,
unique. However, with the fox’s guidance, the prince realizes that even so many similar
flowers cannot stop his own rose from being unique.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
PLANET 1: The King PLANET 4: The Businessman
PLANET 2: The Vain Man PLANET 5: The Lamplighter
PLANET 3: The Drunkard PLANET 6: The Geographer