THE LITTLE PRINCE: A SMALL BOOK WITH VERY BIG QUESTIONS
Book Review | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
At first glance, The Little Prince looks like a children’s book.
It has simple illustrations, short chapters and a tiny prince who travels from planet to planet meeting strange people.
But somewhere along the journey, you realise that the book is not really asking children to understand adults.
It is asking adults to remember what they understood as children.
The story begins when a pilot crashes in the Sahara Desert and meets a mysterious little boy from another planet. The Little Prince tells him about his asteroid, his beloved rose and his travels through space.
On each planet, he meets an adult obsessed with something: authority, admiration, money, work or knowledge.
The situations are funny, but they also feel strangely familiar.
One person wants to be praised constantly. Another counts stars because he believes owning more things makes him important. Someone else is so busy completing tasks that he has forgotten to ask whether those tasks matter.
The Little Prince looks at these adults with the confusion of a child.
And suddenly, we begin looking at ourselves the same way.
That is what makes the book memorable.
It asks questions without sounding like a lesson.
Why do we become embarrassed by imagination?
Why do we measure success by what we own?
Why do we sometimes understand the value of a person only after losing them?
The relationship between the Little Prince and his rose is especially interesting. The rose is imperfect. She can be demanding and difficult. Yet she matters to him because of the time, attention and care he has given her.
That idea stayed with me.
We sometimes assume that something is valuable because it is rare.
The Little Prince suggests another possibility: perhaps something becomes valuable because we choose to care about it.
The book also understands something important about growing up.
Growing older is unavoidable.
Becoming too serious is not.
The Little Prince remains curious. He asks questions repeatedly. He notices sunsets. He wants explanations that actually make sense.
Adults often stop doing those things because we are afraid of looking foolish.
Perhaps we should not.
So, is The Little Prince worth the hype?
Yes.
Not because every page gives you an answer.
It is worth reading because the questions quietly follow you after the story ends.
You may finish the book in an afternoon.
Understanding everything it is trying to say could take much longer.
