The+Little+Prince

=The Little Prince=

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s novel, //The Little Prince//, has been internationally loved by people of every age. When the novel was released in 1943 in the United States, it was published as a children’s novel. Yet despite its original audience, the book has touched the hearts of adults and children alike. //The Little Prince// has an appealing and easy to follow plot for young readers and yet it holds complex meaning and food for thought for older readers.

Saint-Exupéry wrote his novel in the United States after refusing to join the Royal Air Force in his home country, France. He had been a well known pilot in the French Air Force until the armistice between France and Germany in 1940. Saint-Exupéry lived in New York until returning back to his position as a pilot in the year 1944. While on a reconnaissance mission, his plane disappeared, and he was never seen again.

Many of the mysterious and complex details of //The Little Prince// are thought to be based off of Saint-Exupéry’s also very mysterious life. The novel tells the story of an aviator who crashes his plane in the desert. Soon after crashing, a little boy appears and asks the aviator to draw him a sheep. From there, the relationship between the two characters grows as the little boy, soon learned to be called the Little Prince, tells the story of his past travels around the galaxy and how he arrived on Earth. The novel ends in a very sudden manner, similarly to Saint-Exupéry’s life. The Little Prince must leave Earth to return home to his planet and does so by allowing himself to be bitten by a poisonous snake. Readers are left wondering and hoping for the return of the Little Prince, but unfortunately Saint-Exupéry passed away even before the release of his novel in his home country. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry left the world with a powerful novel that continues to wonder its readers.