"Little Prince" of the planet and their inhabitants. "The Little Prince": analysis
“After all, all adults were children at first, only few of them remember this.”
This book can be read in 30 minutes, but this fact did not prevent the book from becoming a world classic. The author of the story is French writer, poet and professional pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery. This allegorical tale is the most famous work author. It was first published in 1943 (April 6) in New York. It is interesting that the drawings in the book were made by the author himself and became no less famous than the book itself.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupery(French Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exup?ry; June 29, 1900, Lyon, France - July 31, 1944) - a famous French writer, poet and professional pilot.
To a summary of the story
At the age of six, the boy read about how a boa constrictor swallows its prey, and drew a snake that swallowed an elephant. It was a drawing of a boa constrictor on the outside, but the adults claimed it was a hat. Adults always need to explain everything, so the boy made another drawing - a boa constrictor from the inside. Then the adults advised the boy to give up this nonsense - according to them, he should have done more geography, history, arithmetic and spelling. So the boy refused brilliant career artist. He had to choose another profession: he grew up and became a pilot, but as before, he showed his first drawing to those adults who seemed to him smarter and more intelligent than the rest, and everyone answered that it was a hat. It was impossible to talk heart to heart with them - about boas, jungles and stars. And the pilot lived alone until he met the Little Prince.
This happened in the Sahara. Something broke in the plane's engine: the pilot had to fix it or die, because there was only water left for a week. At dawn, the pilot was awakened by a thin voice - a tiny baby with golden hair, unknown how he got into the desert, asked him to draw a lamb for him. The astonished pilot did not dare to refuse, especially since his new friend turned out to be the only one who managed to make out in the first drawing a boa constrictor that had swallowed an elephant. It gradually became clear that A little prince came from a planet called "asteroid B-612" - of course, the number is only needed for boring adults who love numbers.
The whole planet was the size of a house, and the Little Prince had to take care of her: every day to clean three volcanoes - two active and one extinct, and also weed out baobab sprouts. The pilot did not immediately understand the danger baobabs pose, but then he guessed and, in order to warn all the children, he drew a planet where a lazy person lived, who did not weed out three bushes in time. But the Little Prince always put his planet in order. But his life was sad and lonely, so he loved to watch the sunset - especially when he was sad. He did this several times a day, simply by moving his chair to follow the sun. Everything changed when a wonderful flower appeared on his planet: it was a beauty with thorns - proud, touchy and ingenuous. The little prince fell in love with her, but she seemed to him capricious, cruel and arrogant - he was then too young and did not understand how this flower lit up his life. And so the little prince cleared in last time his volcanoes, pulled out the sprouts of baobabs, and then said goodbye to his flower, which only at the moment of farewell admitted that he loved him.
He went on a journey and visited six neighboring asteroids. The king lived on the first: he wanted to have subjects so much that he offered the Little Prince to become a minister, and the kid thought that adults were a very strange people. On the second planet lived an ambitious on third- drunkard on the fourth- a business man fifth- lamplighter. All adults seemed extremely strange to the Little Prince, and only he liked the Lamplighter: this man remained faithful to the agreement to light the lamps in the evenings and extinguish the lanterns in the mornings, although his planet was so reduced that day and night changed every minute. Don't be so small here. The little prince would have stayed with the Lamplighter, because he really wanted to make friends with someone - besides, on this planet you could admire the sunset one thousand four hundred and forty times a day!
A geographer lived on the sixth planet. And since he was a geographer, he was supposed to ask travelers about the countries where they came from in order to write down their stories in books. The little prince wanted to tell about his flower, but the geographer explained that only mountains and oceans are written in books, because they are eternal and unchanging, and flowers do not live long. Only then did the Little Prince realize that his beauty would soon disappear, and he left her alone, without protection and help! But the insult has not yet passed, and the Little Prince went on, but he thought only of his abandoned flower.
Earth was with food- a very difficult planet! Suffice it to say that there are one hundred and eleven kings, seven thousand geographers, nine hundred thousand businessmen, seven and a half million drunkards, three hundred and eleven million ambitious people - a total of about two billion adults. But the Little Prince made friends only with the snake, the Fox and the pilot. The snake promised to help him when he bitterly regrets his planet. And Fox taught him to be friends. Everyone can tame someone and become his friend, but you always need to be responsible for those whom you have tamed. And the Fox also said that only the heart is vigilant - you cannot see the most important thing with your eyes. Then the Little Prince decided to return to his rose, because he was responsible for it. He went to the desert - to the very place where he fell. So they met the pilot. The pilot drew him a lamb in a box and even a muzzle for a lamb, although he used to think that he could only draw boas - inside and out. The little prince was happy, but the pilot felt sad - he realized that he was also tamed. Then the Little Prince found a yellow snake, whose bite kills in half a minute: she helped him, as promised. The snake can return everyone to where he came from - she returns people to the earth, and she returned the Little Prince to the stars. The kid told the pilot that it would only look like death, so there is no need to be sad - let the pilot remember him, looking at the night sky. And when the Little Prince laughs, it will seem to the pilot that all the stars are laughing like five hundred million bells.
The pilot fixed his plane and his comrades rejoiced at his return. Since then six years have passed: little by little he was comforted and fell in love with looking at the stars. But he is always excited: he forgot to draw a muzzle strap, and the lamb could eat the rose. Then it seems to him that all the bells are crying. After all, if the rose is no longer in the world, everything will be different, but no adult will ever understand how important this is.
He knew how to talk about his flights in such a way that the interlocutor forgot about everything in the world, women listened especially eagerly to the pilot, unable to resist the charm of this strange person. He found himself on the verge of death many times, and found it on a reconnaissance expedition over the Mediterranean Sea. His body was never found, only 54 years later the sea returned the bracelet of the writer and pilot with the names "Antoine" (himself), "Consuelo" (his wife). Today, on the day of the 115th anniversary of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, we remember Interesting Facts his most famous book, The Little Prince.
Is it a fairy tale?
A native of Lyon, the son of the Viscount de Saint-Exupery, invented the little prince in 1942, two years before his death. This work is often called a fairy tale, but it is not quite a fairy tale, it contains many personal experiences of the author and philosophical things, so, rather, The Little Prince is a parable. Yes, and children are unlikely to understand the deep subtext that is hidden behind the conversations of the pilot and the baby.
The most popular of all French books
This thin book is the most popular of all written in French. It has been translated into more than 250 languages (and dialects) of the world.
The book was published by the Americans (Reynal & Hitchcock) in 1943, and not in the original, but translated into English (the author then lived in the States). At home, the writer "The Little Prince" was seen only 2 years after his death.
Since 1943, the total circulation of the book has exceeded 140 million copies.
Thanks to Nora Gal
The translator Eleonora Galperina (who worked under the pseudonym Nora Gal) became interested in the book and translated it for her friend's children - this is how the fairy tale appeared in our country.
It became available to the general reader later: in the Soviet Union, The Little Prince was published in periodical("thick" magazine "Moscow") in 1959. This is symbolic: 7 years later, Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita will see the light of day in Moscow. And, as you know, Saint-Exupery met with Mikhail Afanasyevich in 1935.
Heroes and prototypes
It is clear that the pilot in the fairy tale is Antoine himself, but the little prince is the same, only in early childhood.
Sylvia Reinhardt, a friend of Saint-Exupery, became the prototype of the faithful fox.
The prototype of the capricious rose, which the baby thinks about all the time, was the wife of the pilot Consuelo (nee Sunsin).
Quotes have long "gone to the people"
Enchanting, filled deep meaning, phrases from the book have long "gone to the people", sometimes they are slightly altered, but the essence remains the same. Many do not think that these are quotes from The Little Prince. Remember? “Get up in the morning, wash, put yourself in order - and immediately put your planet in order.” "You are forever responsible for those you have tamed." "Only the heart is vigilant." “Do you know why the desert is good? Somewhere in it are hidden springs.
Moons and asteroids
In 1998, the moon of the asteroid "45 Eugenia" was discovered, it was named "Petit-Prince" - and in honor of the title character famous book"The Little Prince", and in honor of Crown Prince Napoleon Eugene Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte, who died at 23 in the African desert. He was, like the hero of de Saint-Exupery, fragile, romantic, but courageous. Eugène was supposed to be Emperor of France, but received over thirty wounds from angry Zulus.
If you are already familiar with the Little Prince, then, of course, you know where he lives. And if you haven’t got to know each other yet, then don’t be upset, you can even be envied, because for the first time you will find out that there is an amazing little man in the world by name ... But he didn’t give his name, but it doesn’t matter. Because everyone knows him under the name of the Little Prince, and he lives in a book with the same name, which was written by the famous French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Before becoming a writer, Saint-Exupery trained as a military pilot, and all his works are devoted to how people who become pilots live. He wrote many books, and the main one is the fairy tale "The Little Prince". True, it is dedicated to adults, but after all, all adults were once children, only few of them remember this. This is how the writer himself writes, who never forgot that he was small, and therefore wrote such an amazing good book in which he revealed his attitude to the world and to people.
The book depicts a wise little man who, despite the fact that he is still quite small, understands everything very correctly and knows, for example, why roses grow thorns. “Flowers are weak. And simple-minded. And they try to give themselves courage. They think - if they have thorns, everyone is afraid of them ... "
And the Little Prince has this hard rule, which, unfortunately, not everyone follows, not only small ones, but also adults: "I got up in the morning," he says, "washed himself, put himself in order - and immediately put your planet in order."
One day, the Little Prince went on a journey and discovered that, besides this planet, there are many others where they live. strange people- adults who understand everything in a completely different way than children, and consider themselves very smart, although this is not at all the case. And then the Little Prince came to Earth, where he accidentally met another serious adult. This was the military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Probably, after all, Saint-Exupery never met a little wise man - the Little Prince, he just invented him. But even if he made up a story about this amazing little man, it's good that he did it. Otherwise, none of us would have met the Little Prince, who once flew to Earth from another planet. True, he never said the name of his planet, but Saint-Exupery thought that this planet could be the asteroid B-612, which was seen through a telescope only once in 1909 by a Turkish astronomer.
Like it or not, it is not known, but you still have to believe that the Little Prince lives somewhere, an amazing kind man, with whom each of us can meet one day when he next arrives on Earth.
Tasks
based on the fairy tale "The Little Prince"
1- test
A) bad drawing
B) lost faith in himself
B) doing something else
A) Asteroid B - 612
B) Asteroid B - 3251
C) Venus - B - 561
A) lamb
B) a pilot
A) he went to the desert
b) he was all alone
C) he saw hundreds of thousands of roses.
6) What wisdom does the Fox give?
A) you need to have more friends
b) never betray a friend
C) you are responsible for the one you tamed
7) What did the Little Prince ask to draw for the lamb?
A) muzzle
B) a rope
A) 5 months
B) two years
B) one year
A) he got bored on Earth
B) realized that he was responsible for the flower
A) pilot
B) magic wand
2- questions
1. Who is the story-tale dedicated to?
2. For whom is this fairy tale written?
3. What is the Little Prince thinking about?
4. What terrible evil seeds are there on the planet of the Little Prince?
5. Is there a planet whose inhabitant the Little Prince likes?
3- The most attentive reader.
Arrange the characters in the order they were met by the Little Prince.
1- (1 point each)
1. Why did the narrator in the tale give up "a brilliant career as an artist"?
A) bad drawing
B) lost faith in myself
B) doing something else
2. What was the name of the little planet of the prince?
A) Asteroid B - 612
B) Asteroid B - 3251
C) Venus - B - 561
3) How many planets did the prince visit in total?
IN) 7
4) Who was the first person on Earth to meet the Little Prince?
A) lamb
B) snake
B) a pilot
5) What disappointment befell the prince on Earth?
A) he went to the desert
B) he was all alone
C) he saw hundreds of thousands of roses.
6) What wisdom does the Fox give?
A) you need to have more friends
b) never betray a friend
IN) you are responsible for the one you tamed
7) What did the pilot draw for the lamb?
A) muzzle
B) a rope
IN) box
8) How long has the Little Prince been on Earth?
A) 5 months
B) two years
IN) one year
9) Why did the prince return to his planet?
A) he got bored on Earth
B) realized that he was responsible for the flower
C) he learned a lot and was in a hurry to tell others
10). Who helped the Little Prince return to his planet?
A) pilot
B) snake
B) magic wand
2- (2 points each)
1. To whom is the story dedicated?(To Leon Werth, my friend when he was little) .
2. Who is this story written for?(And for children and adults so that adults and children can better understand each other).
3. What is the little prince thinking about?(About the meaning of life, about a person's place on earth, about the traces that remain after death, about relationships with each other.)
4. What terrible evil seeds are there on the Little Prince's planet?(Baobab seeds).
5. Is there a planet whose inhabitant the Little Prince likes?(Fifth, lamplighter).
3- (0.5 for each item = 4)
Answers:
1. Old King
2. Ambitious
3. Drunkard
4. Business man
5. Lamplighter
6. Geographer
7. Flower
8. Fox
Total 24 points
In 1943, the work of interest to us was first published. Let's talk briefly about the background of its creation, and then we will analyze it. "The Little Prince" is a work, the impetus for writing which was one incident that happened to its author.
In 1935, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was in a plane crash while flying in the direction of Paris-Saigon. He ended up in the territory located in the Sahara, in its northeastern part. Memories of this accident and the invasion of the Nazis prompted the author to think about the responsibility for the Earth of people, about the fate of the world. In 1942, he wrote in his diary that he was worried about his generation, devoid of spiritual content. People lead a herd existence. To return spiritual concerns to a person is the task that the writer set himself.
To whom is the work dedicated?
The story that interests us is dedicated to Leon Werth, Antoine's friend. This is important to note when doing the analysis. "The Little Prince" is a story in which everything is filled with deep meaning, including dedication. After all, Leon Werth is a Jewish writer, journalist, critic, victim of persecution during the war. Such a dedication was not just a tribute to friendship, but also a bold challenge by the writer to anti-Semitism and Nazism. In difficult times, Exupery created his fairy tale story. He fought against violence with words and illustrations, which he manually created for his work.
Two worlds in a story
Two worlds are represented in this story - adults and children, as our analysis shows. "The Little Prince" is a work in which this division is by no means done according to age. For example, a pilot is an adult, but he managed to save a child's soul. The author divides people according to ideals and ideas. For adults, the most important are their own affairs, ambition, wealth, power. And the child's soul longs for something else - friendship, mutual understanding, beauty, joy. The antithesis (children and adults) helps to reveal the main conflict of the work - the opposition of two different value systems: real and false, spiritual and material. It deepens further. After leaving the planet, the little prince meets "strange adults" on his way, whom he cannot understand.
Travel and dialogue
The composition is based on travel and dialogue. big picture the existence of humanity losing moral values is recreated by the meeting with the "adults" of the little prince.
The protagonist travels in the story from asteroid to asteroid. He visits, first of all, the nearest, where people live alone. Each asteroid has a number, like the flats of a modern high-rise building. These figures contain a hint of the separation of people who live in neighboring apartments, but live as if on different planets. For the little prince, meeting the inhabitants of these asteroids becomes a lesson in loneliness.
Meeting with the king
On one of the asteroids lived a king who looked at the whole world, like other kings, in a very simplified way. For him, subjects are all people. However, the king was tormented by this question: "Who is to blame for the fact that his orders are impossible?". The king taught the prince that judging oneself is harder than judging others. Having learned this, one can become truly wise. The lover of power loves power, not subjects, and therefore is deprived of the latter.
The Prince visits the planet of the ambitious
On another planet lived an ambitious man. But vain people are deaf to everything except praise. Only the ambitious loves glory, and not the public, and therefore remains without the latter.
Drunkard's Planet
Let's continue the analysis. The little prince ends up on the third planet. His next meeting is with a drunkard who thinks intently about himself and eventually becomes completely confused. This man is ashamed of what he drinks. However, he drinks in order to forget about his conscience.
business man
The business man owned the fourth planet. As the analysis of the fairy tale "The Little Prince" shows, the meaning of his life was to find something that does not have an owner and appropriate it. A business man counts wealth that is not his: he who saves only for himself might as well count the stars. The little prince cannot understand the logic by which adults live. He concludes that it is beneficial for his flower and volcanoes that he owns them. But the stars do not benefit from such possession.
Lamplighter
And only on the fifth planet main character finds a person with whom he wants to make friends. This is a lamplighter who would be despised by everyone, because he thinks not only of himself. However, his planet is tiny. There is no room for two. The lamplighter is working in vain, because he does not know for whom.
Meeting with a geographer
The geographer, who writes thick books, lived on the sixth planet, which was created in his story by Exupery ("The Little Prince"). The analysis of the work would be incomplete if we did not say a few words about it. This is a scientist, and beauty is ephemeral for him. Nobody needs scientific works. Without love for a person, it turns out that everything is meaningless - and honor, and power, and labor, and science, and conscience, and capital. The little prince leaves this planet too. The analysis of the work continues with a description of our planet.
Little prince on earth
The last place the prince visited was the strange Earth. When he arrives here, the title character of Exupery's story "The Little Prince" feels even more alone. The analysis of the work when describing it should be more detailed than when describing other planets. After all, the author pays special attention in the story to the Earth. He notices that this planet is not at all home, it is "salty", "all in needles" and "completely dry". It's uncomfortable to live on it. Its definition is given through images that seemed strange to the little prince. The boy notes that this planet is not simple. It is ruled by 111 kings, there are 7,000 geographers, 900,000 businessmen, 7.5 million drunkards, 311 million ambitious people.
The protagonist's journey continues in the following sections. He meets, in particular, with the switchman directing the train, but people do not know where they are going. The boy then sees a merchant who sells anti-thirst pills.
Among the people living here, the little prince feels lonely. Analyzing life on Earth, he notes that there are so many people on it that they cannot feel like one. Millions remain strangers to each other. What do they live for? A lot of people are rushing in fast trains - why? People are not connected by pills or fast trains. And the planet will not become a home without it.
Friendship with the Fox
After analyzing Exupery's The Little Prince, we found out that the boy is bored on Earth. And the Fox, another hero of the work, has a boring life. Both of them are looking for a friend. The fox knows how to find him: you need to tame someone, that is, create bonds. And the main character understands that there are no shops where you can buy a friend.
The author describes the life before the meeting with the boy, which was led by the Fox from the story "The Little Prince". allows us to notice that before this meeting he only fought for his existence: he hunted chickens, and hunters hunted him. The fox, having been tamed, escaped from the circle of defense and attack, fear and hunger. It is to this hero that the formula "only the heart is vigilant" belongs. Love can be transferred to many other things. Having made friends with the main character, the Fox will fall in love with everything else in the world. The close in his mind is connected with the distant.
A pilot in the desert
It is easy to imagine a home planet in habitable places. However, in order to understand what a house is, it is necessary to be in the desert. Exupery's analysis of The Little Prince suggests this idea. In the desert, the main character met a pilot, with whom he then became friends. The pilot ended up here not only because of a malfunction of the aircraft. He has been enchanted by the desert all his life. The name of this desert is loneliness. The pilot understands an important secret: there is meaning in life when there is someone to die for. The desert is a place where a person feels a thirst for communication, thinks about the meaning of existence. It reminds us that the earth is the home of man.
What did the author want to tell us?
The author wants to say that people have forgotten one simple truth: they are responsible for their planet, as well as for those who have tamed. If we all understood this, there would probably be no wars and economic problems. But people are very often blind, do not listen to their own hearts, leave their home, looking for happiness far from their relatives and friends. Antoine de Saint-Exupery did not write his fairy tale "The Little Prince" for fun. The analysis of the work carried out in this article, we hope, convinced you of this. The writer appeals to all of us, urging us to carefully look at those who surround us. After all, these are our friends. They must be protected, according to Antoine de Saint-Exupery ("The Little Prince"). This concludes the analysis of the work. We invite readers to reflect on this story for themselves and continue the analysis with their own observations.
