« The Little Prince"was born in 1943, in America, where Antoine de Saint-Exupéry fled from Nazi-occupied France. An unusual fairy tale, equally well received by both children and adults, turned out to be relevant not only during the Second World War. Today, people still read it, trying to find in “The Little Prince” answers to eternal questions about the meaning of life, the essence of love, the price of friendship, and the necessity of death.
In form - a story consisting of twenty-seven parts, in plot - a fairy tale telling about the magical adventures of Prince Charming, who left his native kingdom because of unhappy love, according to art organization– a parable – simple in speech execution (it’s very easy to learn from “The Little Prince” French) and complex in terms of philosophical content.
The main idea of the fairy tale-parable is affirmation true values human existence. The main antithesis is the sensual and rational perception of the world. The first is typical for children and those rare adults who have not lost their childish purity and naivety. The second is the prerogative of adults, firmly rooted in the world of rules they themselves created, often absurd even from the point of view of reason.
The appearance of the Little Prince on Earth symbolizes the birth of a person coming into our world with a pure soul and with a loving heart, open to friendship. Return fairy tale hero home occurs through real death, coming from the venom of a desert snake. The physical death of the Little Prince embodies the Christian idea of eternal life a soul that can go to Heaven only by leaving its bodily shell on earth. The fairy-tale hero's yearly stay on Earth correlates with the idea of the spiritual growth of a person learning to be friends and love, to care for and understand others.
The image of the Little Prince is based on fairy-tale motifs and the image of the author of the work - a representative of the impoverished noble family, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who bore the nickname “Sun King” as a child. Little boy with golden hair is the soul of the author who never grew up. The meeting of an adult pilot with his child self occurs in one of the most tragic moments of his life - a plane crash in the Sahara Desert. The author, balancing on the brink of life and death, learns the story of the Little Prince while repairing the plane and not only talks to him, but also goes together to the well, and even carries his subconscious in his arms, giving him the features of a real character, different from him.
The relationship between the Little Prince and Rose is an allegorical depiction of love and the difference in its perception between a man and a woman. Capricious, proud, beautiful Rose manipulates her lover until she loses power over him. Tender, timid, believing in what he is told, the Little Prince suffers cruelly from the beauty’s frivolity, not immediately realizing that he had to love her not for words, but for deeds - for that wonderful aroma that she gave him, for all that the joy she brought into his life.
Having seen five thousand Roses on Earth, the space traveler becomes desperate. He was almost disappointed in his flower, but the Fox, who met him on the way in time, explains to the hero the truths long forgotten by people: that you need to look with your heart, and not with your eyes, and to be responsible for those you have tamed.
The artistic image of the Fox is an allegorical depiction of friendship, born from habit, love and the desire to be needed by someone. In an animal’s understanding, a friend is someone who fills his life with meaning: destroys boredom, allows him to see the beauty of the world around him (comparing the Little Prince’s golden hair with ears of wheat) and cry when parting. The little prince learns the lesson given to him well. Saying goodbye to life, he thinks not about death, but about his friend. The image of the Fox in the story also correlates with the biblical Serpent-tempter: for the first time the hero meets him under an apple tree, the animal shares with the boy knowledge about the most important foundations of life - love and friendship. As soon as the Little Prince comprehends this knowledge, he immediately acquires mortality: he appeared on Earth traveling from planet to planet, but he can leave it only by abandoning his physical shell.
In the role fairytale monsters in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's story, adults appear, whom the author snatches from the general mass and places each on his own planet, which encloses a person within itself and, as if under a magnifying glass, shows his essence. The desire for power, ambition, drunkenness, love of wealth, stupidity - the most characteristic features adults. Exupery portrays an activity/life that is devoid of meaning as a common vice for all: the king from the first asteroid rules over nothing and gives only those orders that his fictitious subjects can carry out; the ambitious person values no one but himself; the drunkard is unable to escape the vicious circle of shame and drinking; business man endlessly adding up the stars and finding joy not in their light, but in their value, which can be written on paper and put in a bank; The old geographer is mired in theoretical conclusions that have nothing in common with the practical science of geography. The only one reasonable person, from the point of view of the Little Prince, in this row of adults looks like a lamplighter, whose craft is useful to others and beautiful in its essence. Perhaps this is why it loses its meaning on a planet where the day lasts one minute, and on Earth electric lighting is already in full swing.
The story about the boy who came from the stars is written in a touching and bright style. She's all permeated sunlight, which can be found not only in the hair and yellow scarf of the Little Prince, but also in the endless sands of the Sahara, ears of wheat, the orange Fox and the yellow Snake. The latter is immediately recognized by the reader as Death, because it is she who is characterized by power greater “than the king’s finger,” the ability to “carry further than any ship” and the ability to solve “all riddles.” The snake shares with the Little Prince his secret of knowing people: when the hero complains about loneliness in the desert, she says that “it can be lonely among people too.”
The sad end does not cancel the life-affirming beginning of the fairy tale: the author begins to hear the stars and see the world in a new way because “somewhere in an unknown corner of the universe, a lamb that we have never seen, perhaps, ate a Rose that is unknown to us.”
1) The history of the creation of the work. "The Little Prince" is the most famous work Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Published in 1943 as a children's book. The history of the publication of A. Saint-Exupéry’s fairy tale is interesting:
Written! in 1942 in New York.
First French edition: "Editions Gallimard", 1946
In Russian translation: Nora Gal, 1958. The drawings in the book were made by the author himself and are no less famous than the book itself. It is important that these are not illustrations, but an organic part of the work as a whole: the author himself and the characters of the fairy tale constantly refer to the drawings and even argue about them. “After all, all adults were children at first, only few of them remember this” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, from the dedication to the book. During the meeting with the author, the Little Prince is already familiar with the drawing “Elephant in a Boa Constrictor.”
The story of “The Little Prince” itself arose from one of the plots of “Planet of People”. This is the story of the accidental landing of the writer himself and his mechanic Prevost in the desert.
2) Features of the genre of the work. The need for deep generalizations prompted Saint-Exupery to turn to the genre of parables. The lack of specific historical content, the conventions characteristic of this genre, its didactic conditionality allowed the writer to express his views on issues that worried him moral problems time. The parable genre becomes the vehicle for Saint-Exupery's reflections on the essence of human existence. A fairy tale, like a parable, the oldest genre oral folk art. It teaches a person to live, instills optimism in him, and affirms faith in the triumph of goodness and justice. Real human relationships are always hidden behind the fantastic nature of fairy-tale plots and fiction. Like a parable, moral and social truth always triumphs in a fairy tale. The fairy tale-parable “The Little Prince” was written not only for children, but also for adults who have not yet completely lost their childish impressionability, their childishly open view of the world and the ability to fantasize. The author himself had such a childishly sharp vision. We determine that “The Little Prince” is a fairy tale by the fairy-tale features present in the story: the hero’s fantastic journey, fairy tale characters(Fox, Snake, Rose). The work of A. Saint-Exupery “The Little Prince” belongs to the genre of a philosophical fairy tale-parable.
3) Theme and problems of the fairy tale. Saving humanity from the coming inevitable catastrophe is one of the main themes of the fairy tale “The Little Prince”. This poetic tale is about the courage and wisdom of an artless child’s soul, about such important “non-childish” concepts as life and death, love and responsibility, friendship and fidelity.
4) The ideological concept of the fairy tale. “Loving does not mean looking at each other, it means looking in the same direction”
This thought determines ideological plan fairy tale stories. “The Little Prince” was written in 1943, and the tragedy of Europe in World War II, the writer’s memories of defeated, occupied France leave their mark on the work. With his bright, sad and wise tale, Exupery defended undying humanity, a living spark in the souls of people. In a certain sense, the story was the result creative path writer, philosophical, artistic comprehension. Only an artist can see the essence - inner beauty and the harmony of the world around him. Even on the lamplighter’s planet, the Little Prince remarks: “When he lights a lantern, it’s as if one more star or flower is being born. And when he turns off the lantern, it’s as if a star or a flower is falling asleep. Great activity. It’s really useful because it’s beautiful.” The main character says inside beauty, and not its outer shell. Human work must have meaning, and not simply turn into mechanical actions. Any business is useful only when it is internally beautiful.
5) Features of the plot of the fairy tale. Saint-Exupéry coast based on traditional fairy tale plot(Because of unhappy love, Prince Charming leaves his father's house and wanders along endless roads in search of happiness and adventure. He tries to gain fame and thereby conquer the unapproachable heart of the princess.), but reinterprets it in his own way, even ironically. His handsome prince is just a child, suffering from a capricious and eccentric flower. Naturally, oh happy ending The wedding is out of the question. In his wanderings, the Little Prince meets not with fairy-tale monsters, but with people bewitched, as if by an evil spell, by selfish and petty passions. But this is only the external side of the plot. Despite the fact that the Little Prince is a child, a true vision of the world is revealed to him, inaccessible even to an adult. And people with dead souls whom he meets on his way main character, much scarier than fairy-tale monsters. The relationship between the prince and Rose is much more complex than the relationship between the princes and princesses from folklore tales. After all, it is for the sake of Rose that the Little Prince sacrifices his material shell - he chooses physical death. There are two in the story storylines: the narrator and the related theme of the world of adults and the line of the Little Prince, the story of his life.
6) Features of the composition of the tale. The composition of the work is very unique. The parabola is a basic component of the structure of a traditional parable. "The Little Prince" is no exception. It looks like this: the action takes place in a specific time and specific situation. The plot develops as follows: there is a movement along a curve, which, having reached highest point incandescence, returns to the starting point again. The peculiarity of such plot construction is that, returning to the starting point, the plot takes on a new philosophical and ethical meaning. A new point of view on the problem finds a solution. The beginning and end of the story “The Little Prince” relate to the hero’s arrival on Earth or the departure of the Earth, the pilot and the Fox. The little prince again flies to his planet to care for and raise the beautiful Rose. The time that the pilot and the prince - an adult and a child - spent together, they discovered a lot of new things about each other and in life. Having parted, they took pieces of each other with them, they became wiser, learned the other’s world and their own, only from the other side.
7) Artistic Features works.
The story has very rich language. The author uses a lot of amazing and inimitable literary devices. In its text you can hear the melody: “...And at night I like to listen to the stars. Like five hundred million bells...” Its simplicity is childlike truth and accuracy. Exupery’s language is full of memories and reflections about life, about the world and, of course, about childhood: “...When I was six years old... I once saw an amazing picture...” or: “...For six years now, how my friend left me with the lamb.” The style and special, unique mystical manner of Saint-Exupery is a transition from image to generalization, from parable to morality. The language of his work is natural and expressive: “laughter is like a spring in the desert”, “five hundred million bells” It would seem that ordinary, familiar concepts suddenly acquire new ones from him original meaning: “water”, “fire”, “friendship”, etc. Many of his metaphors are equally fresh and natural: “they (volcanoes) sleep deep underground until one of them decides to wake up”; the writer uses paradoxical combinations of words that you won’t find in ordinary speech: “children should be very lenient towards adults”, “if you go straight and straight, you won’t get far...” or “people no longer have enough time to learn anything " Narrative style The story also has a number of features. This is a confidential conversation between old friends - this is how the author communicates with the reader. We feel the presence of an author who believes in goodness and reason, soon when life on earth will change. We can talk about a peculiar melody of the narrative, sad and thoughtful, built on soft transitions from humor to serious thoughts, on halftones, transparent and light, like watercolor illustrations of a fairy tale, created by the writer himself and being an integral part of the artistic fabric of the work. The phenomenon of the fairy tale “The Little Prince” is that, written for adults, it has firmly entered the circle of children’s reading.
Reading the works of A. de Saint-Exupery, you feel more acutely the beauty of the world and the power of human attraction to brotherhood. The writer and pilot died three weeks before the liberation of his native France (1944) - he did not return to base from a combat mission, but his books continue to help us better understand ourselves and the world around us.
The philosophical fairy tale “The Little Prince” was written by Exupery shortly before his death. The wisdom of her hints cannot always be conveyed in formulas and words. The halftones and shades of allegorical images are as gentle as the elegant drawings with which the author illustrated his work.
The Little Prince - main character fairy tales - he is shown to us on a journey, in motion, in search, although he understands that from time to time he needs to stop and look back and around: if you walk straight ahead, where your eyes are looking, you won’t go far. On different planets he meets with their adult residents, who, due to income figures, ambition, and greed, have forgotten their human calling.
On Earth, the Little Prince finds himself in a garden with many roses. At this difficult moment for the baby, when he experiences excitement from the thought that the rose was deceiving him, talking about its uniqueness, November appears. He talks about the bottomlessness of the human heart, teaches true understanding love that perishes in the bustle of life. Never talk sincerely, look inside yourself, think about the meaning of life. To have friends, you need to give them your whole soul, give them the most precious thing - your time: “Your Rose is so dear to you because you gave her so much time.” And the Prince understands: his Rose is the only one in the world, because he “tamed” her. Every feeling, including love, must be earned through tireless mental labor. “Only the heart sees well. The most important thing is not visible to the eyes.” One must be able to be devoted in friendship and love; one must not be passive towards evil, because everyone is responsible not only for their own destiny.
Absorbing the moral lessons of a small work, but so capacious in its content, one can agree with the opinion of A. Prasolov, a Russian poet: “Saint-Exupery wrote about the Little Prince shortly before his end... perhaps human souls(individuals, some) always give out their last swan-clean, farewell cry...” This fairy tale is a kind of testament of a wise man to us who remain on this imperfect planet. And is this a fairy tale? Let us remember the desert in which the pilot, who suffered an accident, meets the Little Prince. In any extreme situation, a person’s entire life may pass before him. The good things are remembered, but more often - where and when you showed cowardice, dishonesty, dishonesty. A person “suddenly” begins to see clearly and realizes something that he has underestimated or ignored throughout his life, and therefore, from his lips in these moments of truth and insight, a prayer bursts out: “Lord! Take away the trouble, and I will become better, more noble and generous."
Apparently, in the image of the Little Prince, his sinless childhood came to the narrator (“But you are innocent and came from the star,” says the author, addressing the Little Prince), his pure, unsullied conscience. So little hero helped the pilot take a sharper and more attentive look at life, his place in it, and appreciate it all in a new way. The narrator returns to his comrades as a completely different person: he understood how to be friends, what to value and what to fear, that is, he became wiser and less frivolous. The little prince taught him to LIVE. It was in the desert, far from the bustle, that completely absorbs us and our souls, where in solitude prophets and hermits recognized great truths, the pilot, also in solitude, came close to understanding the meaning of life. But the desert is also a symbol of human loneliness: “It’s also lonely with people...”.
A magical, sad parable, “made up to look like a fairy tale” (A. Panfilov)! Moral and philosophical problems are revealed in it with the help of elegant aphorisms, which then accompany us in our lives, asking for moral guidelines: “it is much more difficult to judge yourself than others. If you can judge yourself correctly, you are truly wise,” “Vain-glorious people are deaf to everything except praise,” “But the eyes do not see. We must search with our hearts."
This work makes us look at the world and people around us differently. Each of the newborns seems to be the same mysterious and enigmatic baby as the one who came to planet Earth on his tiny planet. These Little Princes came to understand our world, to become smarter, more experienced, to learn to search and see with their hearts. Each of them will have their own concerns, each will be responsible for someone, for something, and will be deeply aware of their responsibility - just as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince felt his duty to the one and only rose. And may they always be accompanied by victory over the terrible baobabs!
The work of Antoine de Saint-Exupery “The Little Prince” is rightfully considered a real pearl of world literature of the twentieth century. An incredibly touching story teaches not only children, but also adults love, friendship, responsibility, and empathy. We invite you to get acquainted with literary analysis works according to a plan that will be useful in preparing for the Unified State Exam and literature lessons in 6th grade.
Brief Analysis
Year of writing– 1942.
History of creation– The impetus for writing the work was the writer’s memories of a plane crash over the Arabian Desert, as well as the tragic events of World War II. The book is dedicated to Leon Werth.
Subject– The meaning of life, love, loyalty, friendship, responsibility.
Composition– The work consists of 27 chapters, during which the main characters travel around the planets and talk with each other, reflecting on life.
Genre– Philosophical fairy tale-parable.
Direction– Realism.
History of creation
An unusual fairy tale, which has resonated with millions of hearts around the world for many years, was written French writer at the height of World War II, in 1942.
In 1935, while flying from Paris to Saigon, Saint-Exupery was involved in a plane crash. The accident occurred in the Libyan desert, and left a deep mark on the soul of Saint-Exupéry. Late memories of this incident, as well as deep feelings about the fate of the world, which found itself in the grip of fascism, resulted in a fairy tale, the main character of which was a little boy.
During this period, the writer shared his innermost thoughts about the future of humanity on the pages of his diary. He worried about a generation that received material benefits, but lost its spiritual content. Saint-Exupery set himself a difficult task - to return lost mercy to the world and remind people of their responsibility for the Earth.
The work was first published in 1943 in the USA and was dedicated to the writer’s friend, Leon Werth, a famous Jewish journalist and literary critic, who suffered endless persecution during the war. Thus, Antoine de Saint-Exupery wanted to support his comrade and express his active civic position against anti-Semitism and Nazism.
It is noteworthy that all the drawings in the story were made by the writer himself, which further emphasizes his ideas presented in the book.
Subject
In his work, the writer raised many global themes, which have worried and continue to worry all of humanity for centuries. First of all, this theme of searching for the meaning of life. This is what the Little Prince does, traveling from one planet to another.
The author is sad that the inhabitants of these planets do not even try to go beyond the boundaries of their familiar little worlds and find an answer to the eternal question of the meaning of life - they are quite satisfied with the usual framework of life. But only in search is the truth born, as the main character proves by returning to his beloved Rose at the end of the story.
The writer worries and problems of friendship and love. He not only reveals these burning topics, but also conveys to readers the need for responsibility for a loved one, and the whole world as a whole. The little prince works tirelessly to care for and protect his tiny planet. He loves and cares for Rose with all his heart, who remains alive only thanks to his efforts.
The all-consuming evil is represented in the work with the help of baobab trees, which can quickly absorb all life on the planet if they are not regularly uprooted. This bright image, which has absorbed all human vices that must be fought tirelessly throughout life.
The main idea of the work lies in the phrase: “Loving does not mean looking at each other, it means looking in the same direction.” You need to learn to trust people, be responsible for your loved ones, and not turn a blind eye to what is happening around you - this is what the famous fairy tale teaches.
Composition
In the work “The Little Prince,” the analysis is based not only on revealing the main themes, but also on describing compositional structure. It is based on the technique of dialogue and travel central characters- the narrator and the Little Prince. Revealed in the fairy tale two storylines is the story of a pilot-narrator, and the directly related theme of the reality of “adult” people, and the life story of the Little Prince.
Over the course of the 27 chapters that make up the book, friends travel around planets, meet different heroes, both positive and outright negative.
The time spent together opens up previously unexplored horizons for them. Their close communication allows them to connect two completely different universes: the world of children and the world of adults.
Parting does not become a tragedy for them, because during this time they became much wiser and were able to better understand each other, sharing a piece of their soul, and draw important conclusions.
Main characters
Genre
"The Little Prince" is written in the genre philosophical fairy tale-parable, in which reality and fiction are surprisingly intertwined. Behind the fantastic fairy tale story real human relationships, emotions, experiences are hidden in the best possible way.
A fairy tale in the form of a parable is the most popular crossing of literary genres. Traditionally, the fairy tale is instructive in nature, but affects readers in a soft and unobtrusive manner. In essence, a fairy tale is a reflection real life, but only reality is conveyed through fiction.
The genre of parable was also chosen by the writer for a reason. Thanks to him, he was able to boldly and simply express his views on the moral problems of our time. The parable becomes a kind of conductor of the author’s thoughts into the world of the reader. In his work, he talks about the meaning of life, friendship, love, responsibility. Thus, the fairy tale-parable acquires deep philosophical overtones.
A truthful depiction of real life, despite the fantastic nature of the plot, indicates that realism predominates in the work, which is not alien to philosophical allegories. However, romantic traditions are also quite strong in the fairy tale.
Work test
Rating Analysis
Average rating: 4.5. Total ratings received: 634.
At the age of six, the boy read about how a boa constrictor swallows its prey and drew a picture of a snake swallowing 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 quit this nonsense - according to them, he should have studied more geography, history, arithmetic and spelling. So the boy abandoned his brilliant career as an artist. He had to choose a different profession: he grew up and became a pilot, but still showed his first drawing to those adults who seemed to him smarter and more understanding than the others - and everyone answered that it was a hat. It was impossible to talk heart to heart with them - about boa constrictors, the jungle and the 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 enough water left for a week. At dawn, the pilot was awakened by a thin voice - a tiny baby with golden hair, who somehow ended up in the desert, asked him to draw a lamb for him. The astonished pilot did not dare refuse, especially since his new friend was the only one who was able to see a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant in the first drawing. It gradually became clear that the Little Prince had come from a planet called “asteroid B-612” - of course, the number is only necessary for boring adults who adore numbers.
The whole planet was the size of a house, and the Little Prince had to take care of it: every day he cleaned three volcanoes - two active and one extinct, and also weeded out baobab sprouts. The pilot did not immediately understand what danger the baobabs posed, but then he guessed and, in order to warn all the children, he drew a planet where there lived a lazy person who did not weed out three bushes on 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 moving the chair after the sun. Everything changed when a wonderful flower appeared on his planet: it was a beauty with thorns - proud, touchy and simple-minded. The little prince fell in love with her, but she seemed capricious, cruel and arrogant to him - he was too young then and did not understand how this flower illuminated his life. And so the Little Prince cleaned out his volcanoes for the last time, pulled out the sprouts of the baobabs, and then said goodbye to his flower, which only at the moment of farewell admitted that it loved him.
He went on a journey and visited six neighboring asteroids. The king lived on the first one: he wanted to have subjects so much that he invited the Little Prince to become a minister, and the little one thought that adults were a very strange people. On the second planet lived an ambitious man, on the third a drunkard, on the fourth a business man, and on the fifth a lamplighter. All the adults seemed extremely strange to the Little Prince, and he only liked the Lamplighter: this man remained faithful to the agreement to light the lanterns in the evenings and turn off the lanterns in the mornings, although his planet had shrunk so much that day and night changed every minute. Don't have so little space 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!
On the sixth planet there lived a geographer. And since he was a geographer, he was supposed to ask travelers about the countries from which they came in order to record their stories in books. The little prince wanted to talk about his flower, but the geographer explained that only mountains and oceans are written down 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 resentment had not yet passed, and the Little Prince moved on, but he only thought about his abandoned flower.
The seventh was Earth - 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 regretted his planet. And the Fox taught him to be friends. Anyone can tame someone and become their friend, but you always need to be responsible for those you tame. 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 into the desert - to the very place where he fell. That’s how they met the pilot. The pilot drew him a lamb in a box and even a muzzle for the lamb, although he previously thought that he could only draw boa constrictors - outside and inside. The little prince was happy, but the pilot became sad - he realized that he, too, had been tamed. Then the Little Prince found a yellow snake, whose bite kills in half a minute: she helped him, as she promised. The snake can return anyone to where he came from - she returns people to the earth, and returned the Little Prince to the stars. The kid told the pilot that it would only look like death, so there was no need to be sad - let the pilot remember him while 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 repaired his plane, and his comrades rejoiced at his return. Six years have passed since then: little by little he calmed down and fell in love with looking at the stars. But he is always overcome with excitement: he forgot to draw a strap for the muzzle, 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 become different, but no adult will ever understand how important this is.
"The Little Prince" is the most famous work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Published in 1943 as a children's book. The drawings in the book were made by the author himself and are no less famous than the book itself. It is important that these are not illustrations, but an organic part of the work as a whole: the author himself and the characters of the fairy tale constantly refer to the drawings and even argue about them. “After all, all adults were children at first, only few of them remember this” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, from the dedication to the book. During the meeting with the author, the Little Prince is already familiar with the drawing “Elephant in a Boa Constrictor.” The story about “The Little Prince” itself arose from one of the plots of “Planet of People”. This is the story of the accidental landing of the writer himself and his mechanic Prevost in the desert.
Features of the genre of the work. The need for deep generalizations prompted Saint-Exupery to turn to the genre of parables. The lack of specific historical content, the conventions characteristic of this genre, its didactic conditionality allowed the writer to express his views on the moral problems of the time that worried him. The parable genre becomes the vehicle for Saint-Exupery's reflections on the essence of human existence. A fairy tale, like a parable, is the oldest genre of oral folk art. It teaches a person to live, instills optimism in him, and affirms faith in the triumph of goodness and justice. Real human relationships are always hidden behind the fantastic nature of fairy-tale plots and fiction. Like a parable, moral and social truth always triumphs in a fairy tale. The fairy tale-parable “The Little Prince” was written not only for children, but also for adults who have not yet completely lost their childish impressionability, their childishly open view of the world and the ability to fantasize. The author himself had such a childishly sharp vision. We determine that “The Little Prince” is a fairy tale by the fairy-tale features present in the story: the hero’s fantastic journey, fairy-tale characters (Fox, Snake, Rose). The work of A. Saint-Exupery “The Little Prince” belongs to the genre of a philosophical fairy tale-parable. Theme and problems of the fairy tale. Saving humanity from the coming inevitable catastrophe is one of the main themes of the fairy tale “The Little Prince”. This poetic tale is about the courage and wisdom of an artless child’s soul, about such important “non-childish” concepts as life and death, love and responsibility, friendship and fidelity. The ideological concept of the fairy tale.“Loving does not mean looking at each other, it means looking in the same direction” - this thought determines the ideological concept of the fairy tale. “The Little Prince” was written in 1943, and the tragedy of Europe in World War II, the writer’s memories of defeated, occupied France leave their mark on the work. With his bright, sad and wise tale, Exupery defended undying humanity, a living spark in the souls of people. In a certain sense, the story was the result of the writer’s creative path, his philosophical and artistic comprehension. Only an artist is able to see the essence - the inner beauty and harmony of the world around him. Even on the lamplighter’s planet, the Little Prince remarks: “When he lights a lantern, it’s as if one more star or flower is being born. And when he turns off the lantern, it’s as if a star or a flower is falling asleep. Great activity. It’s really useful because it’s beautiful.” The main character speaks to the inner side of beauty, and not to its outer shell. Human work must have meaning, and not simply turn into mechanical actions. Any business is useful only when it is internally beautiful. Features of the tale's plot. Saint-Exupery took as its basis the traditional fairy-tale plot (Prince Charming, because of unhappy love, leaves his father's house and wanders along endless roads in search of happiness and adventure. He tries to gain fame and thereby conquer the unapproachable heart of the princess.), but reinterprets it in a different way. to his own, even ironically. His handsome prince is just a child, suffering from a capricious and eccentric flower. Naturally, there is no talk of a happy ending with a wedding. In his wanderings, the Little Prince meets not with fairy-tale monsters, but with people bewitched, as if by an evil spell, by selfish and petty passions. But this is only the external side of the plot. Despite the fact that the Little Prince is a child, a true vision of the world is revealed to him, inaccessible even to an adult. And the people with dead souls whom the main character meets on his way are much more terrible than fairy-tale monsters. The relationship between the prince and Rose is much more complex than the relationship between princes and princesses from folk tales. After all, it is for the sake of Rose that the Little Prince sacrifices his material shell - he chooses physical death. The story has two storylines: the narrator and the related theme of the world of adults and the line of the Little Prince, the story of his life. Features of the fairy tale composition. The composition of the work is very unique. The parabola is a basic component of the structure of a traditional parable. "The Little Prince" is no exception. It looks like this: the action takes place in a specific time and specific situation. The plot develops as follows: there is a movement along a curve, which, having reached the highest point of intensity, returns again to the starting point. The peculiarity of such plot construction is that, returning to the starting point, the plot takes on a new philosophical and ethical meaning. A new point of view on the problem finds a solution. The beginning and end of the story “The Little Prince” relate to the hero’s arrival on Earth or the departure of the Earth, the pilot and the Fox. The little prince again flies to his planet to care for and raise the beautiful Rose. The time that the pilot and the prince - an adult and a child - spent together, they discovered a lot of new things about each other and in life. Having parted, they took pieces of each other with them, they became wiser, learned the other’s world and their own, only from the other side. Artistic features of the work. The story has very rich language. The author uses a lot of amazing and inimitable literary techniques. In its text you can hear the melody: “...And at night I like to listen to the stars. Like five hundred million bells...” Its simplicity is childlike truth and accuracy. Exupery’s language is full of memories and reflections about life, about the world and, of course, about childhood: “...When I was six years old... I once saw an amazing picture...” or: “...For six years now, how my friend left me with the lamb.” The style and special, unique mystical manner of Saint-Exupery is a transition from image to generalization, from parable to morality. The language of his work is natural and expressive: “laughter, like a spring in the desert”, “five hundred million bells” It would seem that ordinary, familiar concepts suddenly acquire a new original meaning in him: “water”, “fire”, “friendship”, etc. d. Many of his metaphors are equally fresh and natural: “they (volcanoes) sleep deep underground until one of them decides to wake up”; the writer uses paradoxical combinations of words that you won’t find in ordinary speech: “children should be very lenient towards adults”, “if you go straight and straight, you won’t get far...” or “people no longer have enough time to learn anything " The narrative style of the story also has a number of features. This is a confidential conversation between old friends - this is how the author communicates with the reader. We feel the presence of an author who believes in goodness and reason, soon when life on earth will change. We can talk about a peculiar melody of the narrative, sad and thoughtful, built on soft transitions from humor to serious thoughts, on halftones, transparent and light, like watercolor illustrations of a fairy tale, created by the writer himself and being an integral part of the artistic fabric of the work. The phenomenon of the fairy tale “The Little Prince” is that, written for adults, it has firmly entered the circle of children’s reading.