Throughout The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery uses his life experiences to help write this book. He uses his life to create a plot; these experiences will both be described in this paper, along with how they are related to each other.
Exupery grew up in Saint-Maurice de Remens. He lived in a castle with a fairytale atmosphere. Joelle Eyheramanno stated that Antoines childhood turned around two poles, Saint-Maurice de Remens and his mother. His brother died when he was a teenager; during the years following his brothers death, his higher education was focused on astrology and literature. While in school, he was called for military service. The military introduced him to aviation.
His interest soon turned into a passion. This passion was with him since the days at Saint-Maurice de Remens, when he would watch the airfield next to the castle. Just when everything seemed to be going his way, he was asked to resign from the military by his girlfriend. He did so and began to work for her father as a clerk.He did not like his line of work and began writing at this time. Soon after, he decided to become a pilot for a commercial airline.
The man, who interviewed him for the pilot position, recalled that Exupery had a fertile imagination among other things. He flew once again for this company, until he went back to fly for the army. He spent much time alone at a post in Cape Juby, where he wrote and took time to contemplate. Soon after his time in the desert, his services were no longer needed in the military.
He resigned and moved to America. He lived here in and out of depression, until he once again was flying in North Africa for the military. He flew many missions, and on his ninth mission his airplane and his body never returned. His plane and his body were never seen again. Much of this life is portrayed in The Little Prince.The plot of The Little Prince is simple.
The little prince is from an asteroid with three volcanoes, two that are active. The asteroid also has a flower. The prince feels lonely on his asteroid; he leaves and travels the planets to find a friend. Along his way he meets a king, tippler, a businessman, a geographer, a lamplighter, and a conceited man. These grown-ups leave him perplexed about the important matters of life.
As he travels, he comes to earth, which makes him feel lonelier because of its site and emptiness. He encounters a snake and a fox that teach him about man. They teach him the importance the flower has to him. When he realized the importance, he decided to return to his asteroid.
However, before he leaves, he meets a pilot who was lonely like him. The prince becomes the man's friend. Much of what happens afterwards is related to Exuperys life.Growing up in Saint Maurice de Remens gave Exupery a fantasy life. This is similar to the little princes world, simple, yet fantasy like.
The little prince revolved much of what he did around the flower, much like Exupery and his mother. Exupery had an interest in astrology, which is demonstrated by all his references to the prince traveling the planets and stars. The little prince traveled; when he came to Earth, he was very lonely. Exupery traveled while he was a pilot; when he was in the desert, he was very lonely. Also, on his ninth mission, the aircraft and body of Saint-Exupery, like the little prince in the desert, were never found.
Maybe he traveled to asteroid B612 to join his little prince, silently, leaving no trace or, at the most, leaving behind a stream of stars. In the end we realize that the charming little prince is nothing else but a duplicate of Saint-Exupery, it is the child living inside him that stirs him and guides him, the child that wakes up in the crucial moments of his life and prevents him from making stupid decisions like many a grow-up who believe in numbers, in demonstration, in the seriousness of logic, more than in the seriousness of the heart. These are some of the ways that Exuperys life is related to The Little Prince.Exupery uses his life experiences to write The Little Prince. His life and his book were one and the same.
They bore a relationship such that his writing mirrored the way the book was written. One day I hope a good book like this one can be written about my life.
Bibliography:
Works Cited
Eyheramonno, Joelle. Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
The
Little Prince. http://members.tripod.lycos.
nl/adm/popup/roadmap.shtml.Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. The Little Prince.
Orlando:
Harcourt Brace ; Company, 1943.
