Summary
Asteroid B-612
A pilot lost in more ways than one
A fox yet to be tamed
A selfish king of none
A rose unique to one
…..and the little prince who binds them all together.
Reflections
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a novella full of allegories about love, life, and what lies beyond the reaches of our world. It is filled with a child’s wisdom that touches the weathered hearts of many adults. The little prince’s journey through the stars and back home to his rose, can symbolize the path we must all take to return to our beloved. Yet the road itself is most necessary. For only on the trail of life, do we become complete forms of ourselves and gain all the important elements we didn’t realize we were missing.
At the beginning, the pilot recalls his early childhood and reflects on how we are all formed early on by society through the discouragement of a child’s imagination. Because others can only see a hat in a drawing of a snake swallowing an elephant, we all learn to be conventional and to stay within the safe parameters of social convention lest we be ostracized. We learn realism and pragmatism rule over dreams and creativity until we all together forget to see with a child’s heart. Such was the pilot’s rite of passage into adulthood.
On the other side of the stars is a lonely prince. He is the keeper of his small realm of Asteroid B-612 where he watches up to forty-four sunsets a day. Only when a rose lands on his asteroid does little prince learn about love. It is a love that protects the rose from harsh elements and waters the rose daily.
But the blossom of love can oft wilt under the flame of stirring anger. So the little prince voyages across the universe and gradually learns the hopeless ways of adults, what it means to tame a creature, all the while traveling on the long road that leads the realization about the extent of his
love for the beloved rose.
Also, the fox and the rose show how none can compare to the ones we cherish. The little prince’s connection to the fox shows the true strength of friendship. In the same manner, the rose shows that the bond of the heart only strengthen through time.
The little prince himself is a part of us all: the same ethereal spirit immortalized in the outer reaches of our world, such as Peter Pan. The profound nature of the little prince’s philosophy even moves the pilot to unearth and embrace a lost part of his childhood. Whether he means to, or not, the little prince’s short time on earth frees the pilot to regain the beating pulse of his imagination and artistry.
Perhaps...
On the road of life, we can find all that we need to return back to our rose.
We can regain the heart of youth like the pilot.
We’ll find an incomparable tie like that of the little prince and the fox.
Perhaps. Perhaps. Perhaps.
Overall,
this is an open ended, timeless tale that, only after finishing, can one hear the far away laughter among the stars.
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