« 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 she is still read by people trying to find answers to questions in The Little Prince. eternal questions about the meaning of life, the essence of love, the price of friendship, the necessity of death.
By form- a story consisting of twenty-seven parts, according to plot- a fairy tale telling about the magical adventures of Prince Charming, who left his native kingdom because of unhappy love, 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.
Main idea fairy tales-parables - statement true values human existence. Home antithesis– sensory 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. The fairy-tale hero's return home occurs through real death, which comes from the venom of a desert snake. The physical death of the Little Prince embodies the Christian idea about 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 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. The 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.
Art Fox image- an allegorical image 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. Fox image in the story it 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 are the most characteristic features of adults. Exupery presents the common vice of all as activity/life that is devoid of meaning: 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; a business man endlessly adds up the stars and finds joy not in their light, but in their value, which can be written on paper and deposited 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 inherent in a power greater than "than in the king's finger", opportunity "carry further than any ship" and ability to decide "all the 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 "among people too" It happens "alone".
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Literature lesson based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's fairy tale "The Little Prince".
Lesson objectives:
to cultivate in students a sense of love for beauty;
teach the skills of reasoning over philosophical concepts: happiness, love, friendship;
teach reading faces;
learn to stage episodes, play a role correctly, and understand it;
Continue learning to read expressively.
Equipment, visibility :
1) children’s illustrations on the topic: “How do you imagine the Little Prince?”, “Rose” (exhibition of children’s drawings);
2) Portrait of A. S – Exupery, article with the biography of the author;
3) musical recording “Magic Flight” (group “Space”).
On the board: topic of the lesson, questions for conversation, posters with an epigraph for the lesson
“Here is my secret, it is very simple: only the heart is vigilant. You can’t see the most important things with your eyes.”
“People have forgotten this truth, but don’t forget: you are forever responsible for everyone you have tamed.”
PROGRESS OF THE LESSON
I. Organizational moment.
II. Setting goals and objectives for the lesson.
III. Opening remarks teachers: Today in the lesson we will get to know you in more detail about the work of the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry “The Little Prince”. You will get to know the fairy tale characters better, their thoughts, feelings, desires; we will learn to analyze work of art, as well as improve the skills of correct reading, reading by heart, and learn to dramatize a literary work. This will be a reflection lesson, a reasoning lesson.
Teacher: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, eminent French writer and a professional pilot, died in 1944 during a combat mission.
While undergoing treatment after an accident in New York, he wrote his work “The Little Prince” in 1942. And he published it there for the first time in the spring of 1943.
Not a single finished work has been nurtured by him for as long as “The Little Prince”.
The motives of “The Little Prince” really began to take shape for Saint-Exupéry with the beginning of the war. During this period, he often drew the same picture: a boy with wings looks from behind a cloud at the earth, at its houses, at the sheep. This surprised boy increasingly haunted the writer, pilot, fighter, preacher of spiritual values, calling people to fight.
Saint-Exupéry, as a writer, always set himself the same task: to express himself, to reveal in himself that person who needs love and who is capable of love.
“The Little Prince” throws light on the writer’s other works, and it is impossible to understand them in all the depth of their plans and aspirations without this fairy tale.
The dedication to Leon Werth – “Leon Werth when he was little” – is symbolic. “The Little Prince” was, as it were, Saint-Exupery’s answer to his friend to all the disputes that they had, and this answer was supposed to show the futility of disputes and differences in the face of the beauty that exists in every person, no matter how deep this beauty was. hidden.
Musical break: “Space” - “Magic Flight”, the reading of the dedication is heard in the background of music.
IV. Analysis of the work.
Reading Chapter 1
Question: Why do you think adults didn’t understand the author when he was little and showed his drawings?
Analysis of Chapter 2
The episode “Meeting with the Little Prince” is being read out.
Question: How do you imagine the little prince? Draw his portrait in words. (Children draw verbal images and compare them with their drawings)
Chapter 4 Analysis
Questions: What important discovery did the author make when he met the little prince?
On what planet did the prince live? What was the name of this planet?
How was his planet discovered?
Answer : These adults are strange people.
Question : In what true beauty? (When appeared new friend?”
“I saw a beautiful house frompink bricks in his windowsgeranium , and on the roofpigeons ”.
“I don’t want my book to be read just for fun...”
“It is very sad when friends are forgotten. Not everyone had a friend. And I’m afraid of becoming like the adults who are interested in nothing but numbers.”
Question
: Why do children and adults look at the world differently?
Episode analysis. Chapter 5
“ On the planet of the little prince there is such a rule: get up in the morning, wash your face, put yourself in order – immediately put your planet in order...”
Question : Baobabs - what are they? What can they be compared to?
“But if you give free rein to the baobabs, trouble will not be avoided.”
Chapter 6 Analysis
“For a long time you had only one entertainment: you admired the sunset...
It feels like I'm at home. You know, when it gets really sad, it’s good to watch the sun go down.
Question : Why did the little prince love the sunset?
Answer : Dreams, thoughts, memories.
Chapter 7 Analysis
Question : What is the real value in understanding the world around us, people?
Episode Analysis
: “I know one planet, there lives such a gentleman with a purple face. He had never smelled a flower in his entire life. I never looked at a star. He never loved anyone. And he never did anything. He is busy with only one thing: he adds numbers. And from morning to night he repeats one thing: “I am a serious person.” He’s a mushroom, not a man.”
(Comparison with a flower is about the development of feelings) “After all, it is so mysterious and unknown, this country of tears...” “How to call so that he can hear, how to catch up with his soul, which is eluding me?”
Dramatization of Chapters 8–9 (Author, Rose, The Little Prince)
Episode Analysis
Questions : Do you think the little prince loved the rose?
How does this feeling manifest itself?
What is love?
Dramatization of Chapter 10. (Author, King, Prince)
When analyzing, we draw the attention of children to the words of the King: “Authority must, first of all, be reasonable.” The king who gave orders to be carried out was kind.
Dramatization of Chapter 11. (Ambitious, Prince)
“He was alone on the planet and said and thought that he was better than everyone else.”
Question: What does the word “ambitious” mean? Why was he alone on the planet?
Chapter 12 Analysis. Drunkard. “I want to forget that I am ashamed, ashamed to drink.”
Conclusion: Drunkenness is the disease of the century.
Dramatization of Chapter 13. (Business man, prince)
Conclusion: He doesn’t see anything around him, which means that this is also not real person?
Analysis of Chapter 14. Lamplighter
Questions: Why did the little prince like the lamplighter the most of all the people he saw? (Lights the lights, performs the right job, gives people light)
Analysis of Chapter 15. Geographer. A scientist who does not move and does not see anything. Therefore, nothing can be opened.
Analysis of chapters 16–18.
Conclusions: “It’s also lonely among people,” “They are carried by the wind. They have no roots - this is very inconvenient.”
Chapter 20. Meeting with roses. “You are beautiful, but empty, I don’t want to die for you... She is mine.” (About my only friend, beloved). “After all, he now knows that only what you give your soul to becomes yours.”
Chapter 21. Meeting with the fox. “Here is my secret, it is very simple: only the heart is vigilant. You can’t see the most important things with your eyes.” “People have forgotten this truth, but don’t forget: you are forever responsible for everyone you tamed.” You are responsible for your rose.”
Questions: What is friendship? What does it mean to tame? (To fall in love, to make friends)
Chapter 22. “Only children know what they are looking for. They devote all their days to a rag doll, and it becomes very, very dear to them, and if it is taken away from them, the children cry...” (Discourse on happiness)
Chapter 25. Discussion of the statement. “On your planet, people grow five thousand roses in one garden... and do not find what they are looking for. But what they are looking for can be found in one single rose, in a sip of water. But the eyes are blind. You have to search with your heart.
Conclusion: You need so little to be happy. And if you are a loving, kind person, who knows how to see the big in small things, then you will definitely be happy.
V. Conclusion : Golden ears of wheat; the stars come to life; the ringing of silver bells. When we have tamed someone, we immediately feel rich - there are so many new impressions and experiences, because everything, absolutely everything around us reminds us of the beloved creature we have tamed, and is a “gift from the heart.” Serious, business people do not receive such gifts. Yes, they would not be able to appreciate them. Therefore, it becomes clear to the Little Prince that their power and wealth are only apparent; in fact, they are powerless and poor. In “The Little Prince,” the author appeals equally to children and adults - to everyone, small and large, who wants to think about life and try to understand what is of real value in it. The fairy tale is philosophical, it turns out, and you can talk about very serious and deep things quite simply and understandably to everyone, especially if you have a sense of humor.
VI. Summing up the lesson.
"Keep searching for yourself..."
(Lesson-reflection on a philosophical fairy tale
A. de Saint-Exupéry "The Little Prince")
Lesson objectives.
Didactic:
Help students understand the philosophical meaning of the fairy tale.
Developmental:
Improve analysis skills literary works philosophical content (the ability to see the artistic means of embodying the author's idea and draw conclusions).
Educational:
Help in defining the system moral values modern man and their own.
Make students look into their inner world and evaluate their “I”.
Lesson equipment:
laptop, projector, electronic presentation for the lesson.
Musical recordings
assignments for work
Type: reflection lesson using COT
Lesson progress
Org moment.
On the board is the topic of the lesson: “Will the Little Prince return to us?”
Epigraph: “You are forever responsible for everyone you have tamed.” A. Saint-Exupery.
Teacher's word.
Guys, today we will introduce you to a new name. This is the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was amazing person, who lived surrounded by friends and people he loved. He did not live on Earth, he lived on the planet of People, feeling like a part of the vast Universe and bearing responsibility for everything that happens in the world.
1 slide
Antoine Saint-Exupéry was a pilot. A man of unusually bright talent, from childhood he was interested in drawing, music, poetry and technology. “Childhood is a huge land from which everyone comes,” wrote Exupery. “Where am I from? I come from my childhood, as if from some country.” In his work, perhaps, there is no book where he does not remember his childhood. Exupery always knew how to value friendship, considering this feeling the most precious thing on earth. He was involved in severe plane crashes, participated in the struggle of the Spanish Republicans, and was often on the verge of death. Friends recalled: “He did not shy away from any risk. Always ahead! Always ready for anything!
2 slide
In Africa, Saint-Exupéry saved friends 14 times who had crashed over the desert and were captured by wild tribes.
When his friend Guillaume crashed in the Cordillera, he circled the dead mountain peaks day after day, diving to the very bottom of the icy gorges.
“Lying in the snow, I saw you, but you didn’t notice me,” Guillaume, who miraculously escaped, later said.
“How could you know that it was I who was looking for you?”
“Who else would dare to fly so low in these mountains?” - answered Guillaume.
As he performed mind-boggling stunts, the car began to fall apart in the air. “I’m done, but I can’t fall on the festive crowd,” he managed to think and found the strength within himself and on the plane to reach the place where, in the event of a disaster, he alone would suffer.
3 slide
For many years, the Negro Bark, kidnapped by nomads, languished in captivity without hope. Saint-Exupery bought Bark and helped him leave for his homeland - to his wife and children.
Somehow in South America he accidentally met a poor old Frenchman who had set out in search of happiness in New World and living out his lonely life in a foreign land. He bought the poor man a ticket on a ship to Marseilles, giving his last money.
Perhaps the only way to be convinced of the reality of miracles is to create them yourself; and let it be even the smallest miracles.
He taught little boy blow bubbles. But when they hit the wall, the bubbles burst. The boy was crying. For several days Exupery walked gloomily. Then I added a drop of glycerin to the soap foam. Now the bubbles were bouncing off the walls like balls; they became even brighter and more beautiful.
He owned many adult inventions, but he was prouder of jumping soap bubbles than of all his other discoveries.
4 slide
"The Little Prince" is a philosophical fairy tale. In the widest philosophical sense– this is a story about love and friendship, about life and death;
- I ask you to determine the genre features of the fairy tale. Prove their presence in the text of the work. Give examples of symbols and allegories.
- Tell us about the pilot's meeting with the Little Prince;
- How did the Little Prince live on his planet?
5 slide
What does the Little Prince teach us, the inhabitants of the Earth?
How do you understand the author’s words: “Children, beware of the baobabs!” Why are they dangerous?
Why does the Little Prince ask to draw a muzzle for the lamb?
What place did Rose occupy in the boy’s life?
6 slide
Why does the Little Prince fly away from her?
What are the golden-haired boy and Rose teaching us here?
Why does the hero of a fairy tale go on a journey? How does he talk about it himself?
Travels of the Little Prince.
Work in pairs.
Visiting various planets, the Little Prince meets adults who have devoted their lives to unreasonable goals. Tell us about each planet and the child’s attitude towards their inhabitants. What lessons did the Little Prince learn from each asteroid? (Lessons are recorded on special sheets, and they work with dictionaries along the way.)
“Asteroid” - 325. Planet of the King” – the message of the first couple. Students reveal the meaning of the words: asteroid, subject, authoritarian, and tell why the boy left the king. Read out philosophical thoughts Exupery: “It’s much more difficult to judge yourself than others. If you can judge yourself correctly, then you are truly wise,” “Everyone should be asked what he can give,” “Authority, first of all, must be reasonable.”
“Asteroid - 326. Planet of the Ambitious” - performance of the second couple. Explanation of words: vanity, ambitious, egoist. A story about a meeting with an ambitious man. The little prince realized thatvain people are deaf to everything except praise.
“Asteroid – 327. Planet of the Drunkard” - work on words: perfection, faith, degradation. The lesson the Little Prince learns:the drunkard drinks because he is ashamed of himself; he finds oblivion in vodka. Every person must find the strength to change themselves if necessary.
“Asteroid – 328. Planet of a business man” - interpretation of the words: business man, beauty, benefit. Let's think about the words:“And the stars have no use for you.”
Lesson:If a person considers his main advantage to be that he is serious and businesslike, and is busy only with business, his life has been lived in vain. If he “in his entire life has never smelled a flower, never looked at a star, never loved anyone, he is not a man, he is a mushroom.”
“Asteroid - 329. Planet of the lamplighter” - students talk about why the Little Prince wanted to make friends with the lamplighter. Lesson:to be true to your word, to work tirelessly, in spite of laziness and difficulties, to light the way for people.
“Asteroid – 330. Geographer’s Planet” - work with the dictionary: reputation, formalist. On this planet, the prince understands: you can’t live like that.
Conclusion:
Depicting the Little Prince's travels to different planets, Saint-Exupéry shows us the false meanings of life. He shows us vicious people who could not withstand the temptations of power, fame, and wealth. They are devoid of faith, truth, knowledge. Their destinies are sad, but none of them calls for help, does not see in the Little Prince a good messenger of fate, a savior.
Now tell us about the boy’s visit to planet Earth.
Does the pilot look like the previously met heroes? (no, he is sociable, kind, selfless, caring);
What truth, forgotten by people, does the Fox remind the Little Prince? (“You are forever responsible for everyone you have tamed, you are responsible for your rose.” Reading the dialogue between the Fox and the Little Prince by role. Chapter 21);
How do you understand the word “tame”? Does this apply to us? Why did we take these words as an epigraph to the lesson?;
Why did the little prince feel very, very unhappy when he saw the garden, full of roses? (He feels deceived and impoverished, he believed that his Rose is the only one, and in this garden alone there are five thousand of the same beauties. But the Little Prince understands that his Rose is unique: “You are not at all like my Rose. No one likes you I didn’t tame, and you didn’t tame anyone. My Fox was like that before. He was no different from a hundred thousand other foxes. But I became friends with him, and now he is the only one in the whole world that is dearer to me than all of you. , and not you, I watered every day. I blocked it with a screen, protecting it from the wind... It’s mine”).
This is the main lesson of the science of love. Love is work. The one we care about, to whom we give our soul, or whom we have tamed, becomes dear.
Why does the Little Prince return to his planet? (Because he tamed his rose, he is responsible for it).
Connected with the theme of love is the theme of feat, the theme of responsibility. What does the prince decide to do in order to fly to his planet? (He must die on Earth, freed from the burden of his body. The little prince is in pain and scared, but he goes for it, turning to the wise snake for help, which has “good poison”).
Let's read the end of chapter XXVI - the scene of farewell to an adult. “It’s in vain that you come with me. It will be painful for you to look at me, it will seem to you that I am dying, but this is not true.”
How does this scene characterize the pilot and the Little Prince? they tamed each other.
At the end of the fairy tale, the author addresses us: “To you, who also fell in love with the Little Prince, just like me, this is not all the same at all: the whole world becomes different for us because somewhere in an unknown corner of the Universe there is a lamb that we have never we didn’t see it, maybe he ate a rose unfamiliar to us.
Look at the sky. And ask yourself, is that Rose alive or is she no longer alive? What if the lamb ate it? And you will see - everything will become different...
And no adult will ever understand how important this is!”
Let's think about these words.
Guys, why do you think the author so wants the Little Prince to return to Earth? (So that adults finally understand what children understand. So that people look at themselves and their actions through the eyes of a pure, sincere, kind friend, and become better and more perfect);
Do you think the boy with golden hair will return to us? (guys’ thoughts).
7 slide
Reading
(You have to search with your heart...
There is no perfection in the world
Words only make it difficult to understand each other
… your rose is the only one in the world
Only the heart is vigilant. You can’t see the most important thing with your eyes)
8 slide
Truth... To find it, “you must search with your heart.” And if “the heart sees” - the sand is not just yellow, but “golden, like honey”, “the stars are blooming in the sky” and for each person they are different, and the water in a spring in the desert is “like music”. All this is mysterious and incomprehensible, just like the space that continues to the sky and above!
Have you ever wondered why a fairy tale begins and ends with an encounter with a snake?
(The coming and going of a person on this planet is painful. When a person leaves, it is as if the white planet ceases to exist.)
Your feelings at the end of the fairy tale (tragedy)
Conclusions
The student reads the poem Eug. Yevtushenko. “There are no uninteresting people in the world”
Final against the backdrop of the song “Tenderness” (Hvorostovsky)
At home: essay “Beware of the Baobabs”
B.L. Gubman notes that, first of all, “The Little Prince” is a philosophical fairy tale, so deep thoughts are hidden behind the seemingly simple plot. The author touches on such eternal themes, like good and evil, love and hate, life and death: such artistic means as metaphor, allegory, symbols, etc. help Antoine in expressing his own thoughts.
The author, emphasizing that the prince is a child, still allows him to discover truths that are inaccessible to many adults. The relationship between the prince and Rose is much more complicated than the relationship between the prince and princess in folk tale, because the prince even sacrifices his life for the sake of Rose, and not everyone is capable of this.
Analyzing works, we constantly come across various romantic traits. Firstly, this is the genre of the work itself - folklore, because it is called the “childhood of humanity”, and the theme of childhood in romantic works is one of the main topics [Gubman B.L., 1992, p. 10].
German idealist philosophers put forward the thesis that man is equal to God in one thing, in that he can develop own idea and realize it, and evil in the world occurs only when a person forgets about this truth and begins to live only for material values, to lead a consumer lifestyle, forgetting about spiritual development. Only a child’s soul and the soul of an artist can preserve the spiritual principle and not give free rein to evil, which is why the romantics touched on the theme of childhood. However, the main tragedy of adults is not that they are subordinated to the material world, but that they have lost their spiritual qualities and stopped living life to the fullest.
1. “Micro-evil” - evil within a certain person
2. “Macroevil” is evil in general. In Antoine's work it was associated with baobabs. The writer himself illustrated his fairy tale and depicted them very similar to the swastika sign, their roots covered our planet. The writer tells us “Beware of the baobabs!”, because the trees will grow and take over the entire planet, because from the seed a large baobab will grow, just like all adults were children at first.
The essence of the above comes down to the fact that adults must constantly improve themselves and not forget about spiritual needs, otherwise they will become what the inhabitants of the planets of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry are presented with - a gray and faceless mass.
To consider this topic in detail, let's turn to other scientists. The theme of the individual and the crowd in philosophy was first highlighted by the German romantic philosopher I. Fichte. He proved that all people are divided into ordinary people (crowd) and artists (personality) according to their attitude towards material things (evil). The conflict between the individual and the crowd cannot be resolved under any circumstances.
The conflict between the main character and the inhabitants of the planets, “strange adults”, who will never understand the prince, because they are alien to each other, is also insoluble. Adults do not follow their hearts, they do not try to become individuals. They live in their own world, where everyone wears masks, and behind them they will never know what love, friendship and beauty are.
From this theme follows the basic principle of romanticism - the principle of dual worlds. The world of the average person, who does not understand the spiritual principle, and the world of the artist (The Little Prince, the author, the Fox, the Rose), which is characterized by moral qualities, will never touch. Only an Artist can see the essence - inner beauty and the harmony of the world around him. Let us remember, back on the lamplighter’s planet, the Little Prince notes: “When he lights a lantern, it’s as if another star or flower is being born. And when he extinguishes the lantern, it’s as if the star or flower is falling asleep. It’s a wonderful activity. It’s really useful, because it’s beautiful ". IN in this case the prince is not talking about external beauty, but about internal; Any business is useful only when it is internally beautiful.
Let's consider an episode of a conversation with a geographer; an important aesthetic theme is touched upon - the ephemerality of beauty. “Beauty is short-lived,” says the prince, so Saint-Exupery encourages us to treat the things around us as carefully as possible and not spoil the inner beauty. The main character discovers the truth for himself, the author and readers - only what is beautiful is that is filled with content and deep meaning , which has an internal nature.
Another important philosophical theme, which is revealed in Exupery’s fairy tale, is the theme of alienation, misunderstanding between adults and children, and on a cosmic scale.
Inner emptiness leads to loneliness, says the author. Most people judge people only by their outer shell, without thinking at all about their inner world, thereby creating a wrong impression. People become lonely even when they are together, they just don’t try to understand each other: “Where are the people?” the Little Prince finally spoke again. “It’s still lonely in the desert...” “It’s also lonely among people,” the snake remarked.”
One of the key philosophical themes of the fairy tale “The Little Prince” is the theme of existence. The theory of being, like evil, consists of two aspects:
1. Real being is existence, it is temporary, transitory;
2. Ideal being is the essence, it is eternal and unchanging. Meaning human life According to this theory, it comes down to getting as close to the essence as possible.
“Serious people” (that is, adults) from the Earth and from the asteroid planets have settled down in real existence and do not strive to cognize the eternal truths of ideal existence. In contrast to them, naturally, are the prince and the author, who are open spiritual development they are given the opportunity to understand the true essence of the world. This is the theme of “vigilance” of the heart, the ability to “see” with the heart. The little prince does not immediately comprehend this wisdom. He leaves his home planet in search, not knowing that what he needed was very close, on his planet.
· Symbolism in Exupery's tale.
Written in the Romantic tradition philosophical tale the images are deeply symbolic, the reader deciphers each image as he perceives it personally, therefore for one image there can be a great many meanings. As A. Zverev mentions, the main images in the fairy tale are the Little Prince, the Rose, the Fox and the desert. Next, let’s clarify what each image means:
1. The Little Prince is a symbol of a human traveler in the universe, looking for hidden meaning things and your own life.
2. Rose is a symbol of love, beauty, femininity
3. The desert is a symbol of spiritual thirst. It is wonderful because it contains the sources of life, which only the heart helps a person to find.
One of the main plot lines in the fairy tale is an accident in which the narrator gets into; in fact, the fairy tale was born in the desert. This element is quite unusual for the reader - we are accustomed to stories taking place in the forest, in the mountains, on the seashore; in Exupery’s work there is only desert and stars, because this is a non-standard situation, and only at such a time does a person experience his whole life, rethink, reassess values [Zverev A., 1997, p.7]
The narrator is left alone with the dead desert, the sands. The Little Prince helps him to see what is true in life and what is false, so the meaning of this image is very important, it helps to see what is hidden from the superficial gaze.
A. Zverev argues that the essence of the above boils down to the fact that the theme of childhood with its freshness of view, crystal clear and clear consciousness and freshness of feelings occupies a central place in the story. Truly, “through the mouth of a child the truth speaks.”
· Plot lines and features of the fairy tale composition.
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.
The first chapter of the story is introductory, key to one of the important problems of the work - the problem of “fathers” and “children”, to the eternal problem of generations. The pilot, recalling his childhood and the failure he suffered with drawings No. 1 and No. 2, reasons like this: “Adults never understand anything themselves, and for children it is very tiring to endlessly explain and explain everything to them.” This phrase serves as a lead-in to the subsequent development of the theme of “fathers” and “children”, to the author’s childhood memories. Adults were unable to understand the narrator’s childish drawing, and only the Little Prince was able to quickly recognize the elephant in the boa constrictor. A. Korotkov emphasizes that it is this drawing, which the pilot always carried with him, that helps establish the relationship between the child and the adult.
The kid, in turn, asks to draw a lamb for him, but every time the drawing turns out unsuccessful: either the lamb is too frail, or too old. “Here’s a box for you,” the narrator says to the child, “and in it sits the kind of lamb you want.” The boy liked this invention: he could fantasize as much as he wanted, imagining the lamb in different ways. The child reminded the adult of his childhood, they gained the ability to understand each other. The ability to enter the world of a child, understand it and accept it - this is what brings the world of adults and the world of children closer together.
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 a plot is that, having returned to the starting point, the plot acquires a new philosophical and ethical meaning, a new point of view on the problem, and finds a solution [Korotkov A., 1995, p. 26].
The beginning and end of the story "The Little Prince" relate to the hero's arrival on Earth or to the departure of the Earth by the pilot and the Fox. The little prince again flies off to his planet to care for and raise the beautiful Rose.
The little prince is a man of few words - he says very little about himself and his planet. The author only learns that the baby came from a distant planet called “asteroid B-612”. The little prince tells the pilot about how he is at war with the baobab trees, which take such deep and strong roots that they can tear apart his little planet. You need to weed out the first shoots, otherwise it will be too late, “this is a very boring job.” But he has a firm rule: “Get up in the morning, wash your face, put yourself in order - and immediately put your planet in order.”
People should take care of the purity and beauty of their planet, jointly protect and decorate it, and prevent all living things from perishing, the prince says. So, unobtrusively, another important theme arises in the fairy tale - environmental, which is very relevant for today’s rapidly developing world.M. Filatova focuses on the fact that it seems that the author of the tale foresaw future environmental disasters and warned about careful attitude to my native and beloved planet. Saint-Exupéry acutely felt how small and fragile our planet is.
The Little Prince's journey from star to star brings us closer to today's vision of cosmic distances, where the Earth, due to the carelessness of people, can disappear almost unnoticed. Therefore, the fairy tale has not lost its relevance to this day; that is why its genre is philosophical, for it is addressed to all people, it raises eternal problems[Filatova M., 1993, p. 40].
The little prince from Saint-Exupery's fairy tale cannot imagine his life without the love of gentle sunsets, without the sun. “I once saw the sun set forty-three times in one day!” - he says to the pilot. And a little later he adds: “You know. When it becomes very sad, it’s good to watch the sun go down.” The child feels like a part of the natural world, and he calls on adults to unite with it.
The established harmony of relationships between an adult and a child is almost disrupted in the seventh chapter. The baby is worried about the thought of the lamb and the rose: will he be able to eat it and if so, then why does the flower need thorns? But the pilot is very busy: a nut stuck in the engine, and he tried to unscrew it, so he answers the questions inappropriately, irritably throwing out: “You see, I’m busy with serious business.” The little prince is amazed: “You talk like adults” and “nothing.” you understand”, like that gentleman “with a purple face”, who lives alone on his planet and in his entire life has never smelled a flower, never looked at a star, never loved anyone. He just added up the numbers and from morning to evening kept repeating one thing: “I am a serious man! I am a serious man! Just like you.” The little prince, pale with anger, explains to the narrator how important it is to protect the only flower in the world that grows only on his planet, from a little lamb, which “one fine morning will suddenly take him and eat him and will not even know what he has done.” The kid explains to the adult how important it is to think and care about the one you love, and to feel happy because of it. “If the lamb eats it, it’s as if all the stars went out at once! And that, in your opinion, doesn’t matter!”
A child teaches an adult, becomes his wise mentor, which makes him ashamed and feel terribly awkward.
Let's look at the further chapters of The Little Prince. What follows is the story of the Little Prince and his planet, and here the story of Rose occupies a special place. N.I. Solomno claims that the rose was capricious and touchy, and the baby was completely exhausted with her. But “she was so beautiful that it was breathtaking!”, and he forgave the flower for its whims. However, the Little Prince took the empty words of the beauty to heart and began to feel very unhappy.
A rose is a symbol of love, beauty, and femininity, as we already said in the chapter about the symbolism of the work. The little prince did not immediately discern the true inner essence of beauty, but after a conversation with the Fox, the truth was revealed to him - beauty only becomes beautiful when it is filled with meaning and content. “You are beautiful, but empty,” continued the Little Prince. “You won’t want to die for your sake. Of course, a random passer-by, looking at my rose, will say that it is exactly the same as you. But for me it is more valuable than all of you.”
Telling this story about a rose, the little hero admits that he did not understand anything then. “It was necessary to judge not by words, but by deeds. She gave me her scent, illuminated my life. I should not have run. Behind these pathetic tricks and tricks, I had to guess tenderness. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young and still I didn’t know how to love!” This once again confirms Fox’s idea that words only interfere with understanding each other. The true essence can only be “seen” with the heart [Solomno N.I., 1983, p.53].
The kid is active and hardworking, he waters Rose every morning, talks with her, cleansed the three volcanoes on his planet so that they give more heat, and pulls out weeds. And yet he felt very alone. Looking for friends, hoping to find true love He sets off on his journey through alien worlds. He is looking for people in the endless desert that surrounds him, because in communication with them he hopes to understand himself and the world around him, to gain the experience that he so lacked.
Visiting six planets in succession, the Little Prince on each of them encounters a certain life phenomenon embodied in the inhabitants of these planets: power, vanity, drunkenness. According to Saint-Exupéry, they embodied the most common human vices taken to the point of absurdity [Mauroy A., 1970, p.69]. It is no coincidence that it is here that the hero has the first doubts about the correctness of human judgments.
On the king's planet, the Little Prince cannot understand why power is needed at all, but he feels sympathy for the king, because he was very kind, and therefore gave only reasonable orders. Exupery does not deny power, he simply reminds that the ruler must be wise and that power must be based on the law.
On the next two planets, the Little Prince meets an ambitious man and a drunkard - and his acquaintance with them plunges him into confusion. Their behavior is completely inexplicable to him and only causes disgust. The main character sees through the meaninglessness of their life, the worship of “false” ideals.
But the most terrible thing in the moral aspect is the business man. His soul is so deadened that he does not see the beauty that surrounds him. He looks at the stars not through the eyes of an artist, but through the eyes of a businessman. It is not by chance that the author chooses the stars; by this he emphasizes the complete lack of spirituality of a business man, his inability to contemplate beauty.
The only one who does his job is the lamplighter: “Here is a man whom everyone would despise - the king, the ambitious, the drunkard, and the businessman. And yet, of all of them, he is the only one, in my opinion, who is not funny. Maybe maybe because he thinks not only about himself,” this is how the kid reasons. But the “loyalty to custom” of the poor lamplighter, who is doomed to light and extinguish his useless lantern without rest, is just as absurd and sad.
V.A. Smirnova notes that the meaninglessness of existence, a wasted life, stupid claims to power, wealth, a special position or honors - all these are the properties of people who imagine that they have “common sense.” The planet of people seems callous and uncomfortable to the hero: “What a strange planet!. Completely dry, all salty and covered in needles. People lack imagination. They only repeat what you tell them.”A. Bukovskaya states a sad fact - if you tell these people about a friend, they will never ask about the most important thing - their questions relate to completely insignificant things: “How old is he? How many brothers does he have? How much does he weigh? How much does his father earn? And after that they imagine, that they recognized a Man.” Is a “sane” person trustworthy if he confuses “a boa constrictor that swallowed an elephant” with an ordinary hat? What gives a true picture of a house: its cost in francs or the fact that it is a house with pink columns? And finally, would the planet of the Little Prince cease to exist if the Turkish astronomer who discovered it refused to change into a European costume, and his discovery would never receive recognition?
Listening to the ringing and sad voice of the Little Prince, you understand that in “adult” people the natural generosity of the heart, directness and sincerity, and masterful concern for the cleanliness of the planet have died out. Instead of decorating their home, cultivating their garden, they wage wars, dry out their brains with numbers, they insult the beauty of sunrises and sunsets with vanity and greed. No, this is not how you should live [Bukovskaya A., 1983, p.98].
Behind the bewilderment of the little hero lies the bitterness of the writer himself about what is happening on earth. Saint-Exupery forces the reader to look at familiar phenomena from a different angle. “You can’t see the main thing with your eyes. Only the heart is vigilant!” states the author.
Not finding what the kid was looking for on small planets, he, on the advice of a geographer, goes to the big planet Earth. The first person the Little Prince meets on Earth is the Snake. According to mythology, the Snake guards the sources of wisdom or immortality, personifies magical powers, appears in conversion rites as a symbol of restoration. In the fairy tale, she combines miraculous power and sad knowledge of human fate: “Everyone I touch, I return to the earth from which he came.” She invites the hero to get acquainted with the life of the Earth and shows him the way to people, assuring him that “It’s also lonely among people.” On Earth, the prince will have to test himself and make the most important decision in his life. V.A. Smirnova emphasizes that the snake doubts that he will be able to maintain his purity after going through trials, but be that as it may, she will help the baby return to his home planet by giving him her poison [Smirnova V.A., 1968, p. 54].
The Little Prince experiences the strongest impression when he finds himself in the rose garden. He felt even more unhappy: “His beauty told him that there were no others like her in the whole universe,” and in front of him “five thousand exactly the same flowers.” It turns out that he had a very ordinary rose, what a prince he is after that. This is where the Fox comes to the aid of the hero.
N.I. Solomno tells us that the Fox (not a fox!) has long been a symbol of wisdom and knowledge of life in fairy tales. The Little Prince's conversations with this wise animal become a kind of culmination in the story, for in them the hero finally finds what he was looking for. The lost clarity and purity of consciousness returns to him. The fox reveals to the baby the life of the human heart, teaches the rituals of love and friendship, which people have long forgotten and therefore lost friends and lost the ability to love. No wonder the flower says about people: “They are carried by the wind.” This allegory can be interpreted this way. People have forgotten how to look at the stars at night, admire the beauty of sunsets, and experience the pleasure of the fragrance of a rose. They submitted to the vanity of earthly life, forgetting about “simple truths”: about joy communication, friendship, love and human happiness: “If you love a flower - the only one that is no longer on any of the many million-dollar stars - that’s enough: you look at the sky and feel happy.” And the author is very sad to say that people They don’t see this and turn their lives into a meaningless existence.
The fox says that for him the prince is only one of thousands of other little boys, just as he is for the prince only an ordinary fox, of which there are hundreds of thousands. “But if you tame me, we will need each other. You will be the only one for me in the whole world. And I will be the only one for you in the whole world. If you tame me, my life will be illuminated as if by the sun. I will begin to distinguish your steps among thousands others." The fox reveals to the Little Prince the secret of taming: to tame means to create bonds of love and unity of souls.
A. Bukovskaya notes that love not only connects us with other beings, but also helps us better understand the world around us, makes ours richer own life. And the Fox reveals one more secret to the baby: “Only the heart is vigilant. You can’t see the most important thing with your eyes. Your Rose is so dear to you because you gave her your whole soul. People have forgotten this truth, but don’t forget: you are forever responsible for everyone he has tamed.”
To tame means to bind oneself to another creature with tenderness, love, and a sense of responsibility. To tame means to destroy facelessness and indifference towards all living things. To tame means to make the world significant and generous, because everything in it reminds of a beloved creature. The narrator comprehends this truth, and the stars come to life for him, and he hears the ringing of silver bells in the sky, reminiscent of the laughter of the Little Prince. The theme of “expansion of the soul” through love runs through the entire tale.
The little prince comprehends this wisdom, and with him it is revealed to both the pilot-narrator and the reader. Together with the little hero, we rediscover for ourselves the main thing in life that was hidden, buried by all sorts of husk, but which constitutes the only value for a person. The little prince learns what the bonds of friendship are.
· A little about friendship
Saint-Exupery also speaks about friendship on the first page of the story - in the dedication. In the author's system of values, the theme of friendship occupies one of the main places. Only friendship can melt the ice of loneliness and alienation, since it is based on mutual understanding, mutual trust and mutual assistance.
“It’s sad when friends are forgotten. Not everyone has a friend,” says the hero of the fairy tale. The little heroine from A. Gaidar’s story “The Blue Cup.” Svetlanka, like the Little Prince, has the ability to see the true essence of the world around her. She looks at the world with an open mind. And her father is similar to the author. Among the eternal bustle of “adult” life, he does not remember human happiness. Constantly guided by reason, he forgets to listen to the most important thing - the voice of his own heart. And the little girl, regardless of her desire, managed to show her father absolutely new world human relationships, childhood relationships; the world is also complex, but richer in feelings and some kind of internal understanding of the beauty of the surrounding people and nature [Bukovskaya A., 1983, p. 84].
At the beginning of the fairy tale, the Little Prince leaves his only Rose, then he leaves his new friend Fox on Earth. “There is no perfection in the world,” the Fox will say. But there is harmony, there is humanity, there is a person’s responsibility for the work entrusted to him, for the person close to him, there is also responsibility for his planet, for everything that happens on it.
Deep meaning is hidden in the image of the planet to which the Little Prince returns: it is a symbol human soul, symbol of the home of the human heart. Exupery wants to say that every person has his own planet, his own island and his own guiding star, which a person should not forget about. “I would like to know why the stars shine,” he /The Little Prince/ said thoughtfully. “Probably so that sooner or later everyone can find theirs again.” The heroes of the fairy tale, having gone through a thorny path, found their star, and the author believes in that the reader will also find his distant star.
B.L. Hubman repeats that "The Little Prince" is romantic fairy tale, a dream that has not disappeared, but is kept by people, cherished by them, like something precious from childhood. Childhood is somewhere nearby and comes in moments of the most terrible despair and loneliness, when there is nowhere to go. Then everything will fall into place, and an adult will return to that clarity and transparency, fearless directness of judgments and assessments, which only happens in children [Gubman B.L., 1992, p. 11].
N.P. Kubareva notes that in ancient chronicles, beliefs and legends, dragons guarded water, but the Saint-Exupery desert can guard it no worse than dragons, it can hide it so that no one will ever find it. Each person is the ruler of his own springs, the sources of his soul, but not everyone can find them.
The author's fervent faith in the existence of hidden springs gives the ending of the fairy tale-parable a life-affirming sound. The story contains a powerful creative moment, faith in improvement and change in the unjust order of things. The life aspirations of the heroes are in harmony with the moral universal principle. Their fusion is the meaning and general direction of the work. [Kubareva N.P., 1999, p. 107].
Summing up the research
During 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 revealed their own from the other side.
We have already talked about the genre features of the story in the initial part of our study. As a result, it is worth noting and highlighting the following: “The Little Prince” is not the traditional and generally accepted type of fairy tale-parable familiar to us all. This is an option adapted to modern times. This is confirmed by numerous details, images and hints taken from reality. public life XX century.
The work has a very rich language, the writer uses many means of expression, most striking are the fresh metaphors. He is natural and expressive: “laughter is like a spring in the desert”, “five hundred million bells”, seemingly ordinary, familiar concepts suddenly acquire a new original meaning for him. Exupery's language is full of memories of life, the world and childhood; it contains very paradoxical combinations of words, which gives originality to this work.
The style and special manner of Saint-Exupery, unlike anything else, is a transition from image to generalization, from parable to morality. You need to have great writing talent to see the world the way Antoine does. There is a secret in this manner of expressing your thoughts; it tells old truths in a new way, reveals their true meaning, making readers think.
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. Therefore, I want to believe him, knowing that he cannot deceive. We feel the presence of an author who believes in goodness and reason, soon when life on earth will change.
The phenomenon of the fairy tale "The Little Prince" is that, written for adults, it has firmly entered the circle of children's reading.
Not everything accessible to adults will be immediately revealed to children, because many readers understand a fairy tale only after becoming adults and re-reading it. Despite this, children read this book with pleasure, as it attracts them with the simplicity of its presentation, the atmosphere of spirituality, the shortage of which is so acutely felt these days; Children are also close to the vision of the author’s ideal in a child’s soul. Only in children does Exupery see the most valuable, unclouded basis of human existence, because only they know how to see things in their true light, regardless of their practical significance!
“The Little Prince” is childish, but at the same time a thoughtful work. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry placed a reflection of the real adult world with its advantages and disadvantages in a light and short fairy tale. In places it is satire, myth, fantasy and tragic story. Therefore, the multifaceted book appeals to both small and large readers.
"The Little Prince" was born during the Great Patriotic War. It all started with Exupery’s drawings, in which he depicted that very “little prince”.
Exupery, being a military pilot, once got into a plane crash, this happened in 1935 in the Libyan desert. Opening old wounds, memories of the disaster and news of the outbreak of the World War inspired the writer to create the work. He thought about the fact that each of us is responsible for the place where he lives, be it a small apartment or the whole planet. And the struggle calls this responsibility into question, because it was during that fierce battle between many countries that deadly nuclear weapons were used for the first time. Alas, many people did not care about their home, since they allowed wars to bring humanity to such extreme measures.
The work was created in 1942 in the USA; a year later it became available to the reader. The Little Prince became the author's final creation and brought him worldwide fame. The author dedicated his book to his friend (Leon Werth), moreover, to the boy his friend once was. It is worth noting that Leon, who was a writer and critic, being a Jew, suffered from persecution during the development of Nazism. He also had to leave his planet, but not of his own free will.
Genre, direction
Exupery talked about the meaning of life, and in this he was helped by the genre of the parable, which is characterized by a clearly expressed morality in the finale and an edifying tone of the narrative. A fairy tale as a parable is the most common crossing of genres. Distinctive feature A fairy tale can be called because it has a fantastic and simple plot, but at the same time it is instructive in nature, helps young readers to form moral qualities, and adults to think about their views and behavior. Fairy tale - reflection real life, but reality is presented to the reader through fiction, no matter how paradoxical it may sound. Genre originality The work suggests that “The Little Prince” is a philosophical fairy tale-parable.
The work can also be classified as a fantasy story.
Meaning of the name
The Little Prince is a story about a traveler who travels throughout the universe. He does not just travel, but is in search of the meaning of life, the essence of love and the secret of friendship. He learns not only the world around him, but also himself, and self-knowledge is his main goal. It is still growing, developing and symbolizing an immaculate and tender childhood. Therefore, the author called it “small”.
Why a prince? He is alone on his planet, it all belongs to him. He takes his role as a master very responsibly and, despite his modest age, has already learned to care for her. Such behavior suggests that this is a noble boy who rules his domain, but what should we call him? A prince, because he is endowed with power and wisdom.
The essence
The plot begins in the Sahara Desert. The pilot of the plane, having made an emergency landing, meets the same Little Prince who arrived on Earth from another planet. The boy told his new acquaintance about his journey, about the planets he had visited, about his former life, about the rose that was his faithful friend. The little prince loved his rose so much that he was ready to give his life for it. The boy loved his home, he liked to watch sunsets, it’s good that on his planet they could be seen several times a day, and for this the Little Prince only had to move his chair.
One day, the boy felt unhappy and decided to go in search of adventure. Rose was proud and rarely gave her patron her warmth, so she did not withhold him. During his journey, the Little Prince met: a Ruler who is confident in his absolute power over the stars, an Ambitious man for whom the main thing is to be admired, a Drunkard who drinks out of guilt for alcohol abuse, no matter how paradoxical it may sound. The boy even met a Business Man, whose main occupation is counting stars. The little prince encountered the Lamplighter, who lit and extinguished the lantern on his planet every minute. He also met the Geographer, who in his entire life had never seen anything except his planet. Last place The traveler's position became planet Earth, where he found a true friend. All the main events are described by us in summary books for a reader's diary.
The main characters and their characteristics
Loving does not mean looking at each other, it means looking in the same direction.
A person should take care of his home, and not tear it apart by wars into bloody, lifeless parts. This idea was especially relevant then, during the Second World War. The little prince cleaned his planet every day, preventing the baobabs from growing to alarming proportions. If the world had been able to unite in time and sweep away the National Socialist movement led by Hitler, then the bloodshed could have been prevented. For those who love the world should have taken care of it, and not locked themselves on their little planets, thinking that the storm will pass by. Because of this disunity and irresponsibility of governments and peoples, millions of people have suffered, and the writer calls to finally learn to faithfully and responsibly love the harmony that only friendship provides.
What does it teach?
The story of the Little Prince is surprisingly heartfelt and instructive. Exupery's creation tells the story of how important it is to have a faithful friend nearby and how important it is to bear responsibility for those whom you have “tamed.” The fairy tale teaches love, friendship, and warns against loneliness. In addition, you should not lock yourself in your small territory, fencing yourself off from the whole world around you. You need to get out of your comfort zone, learn new things, look for yourself.
Exupery also encourages the reader to listen not only to his mind when making decisions, but also to his heart, because you cannot see the main thing with your eyes.
Interesting? Save it on your wall!In 1943, the work of interest to us was first published. Let's talk briefly about the background of its creation, and then carry out an analysis. “The Little Prince” is a work whose writing was inspired by one incident that happened to its author.
In 1935, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was involved in a plane crash during a flight from Paris to Saigon. He ended up in a territory located in the Sahara, in its northeastern part. Memories of this accident and the Nazi invasion prompted the author to think about the responsibility of people for the Earth, 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.
Who is the work dedicated to?
The story we are interested in is dedicated to Leon Vert, a friend of Antoine. This is important to note when conducting analysis. “The Little Prince” is a story in which everything is filled with deep meaning, including the dedication. After all, Leon Werth is a Jewish writer, journalist, critic who suffered persecution during the war. Such a dedication was not just a tribute to friendship, but also a bold challenge from the writer to anti-Semitism and Nazism. IN hard time created his own fairy tale Exupery. He fought against violence with words and illustrations, which he hand-created for his work.
Two worlds in the story
Two worlds are presented in this story - adults and children, as our analysis shows. “The Little Prince” is a work in which the division is not made according to age. For example, the pilot is an adult, but he managed to preserve his childish soul. The author divides people according to ideals and ideas. For adults, the most important things are their own affairs, ambition, wealth, power. But a child’s soul yearns for something else - friendship, mutual understanding, beauty, joy. Antithesis (children and adults) helps to reveal the main conflict of the work - the confrontation between two different systems of values: real and false, spiritual and material. It goes deeper further. Having left the planet, the little prince meets “strange adults” on his way, whom he is unable to understand.
Travel and dialogue
The composition is based on travel and dialogue. The big picture The existence of humanity losing moral values is recreated by the meeting with the “adults” of the little prince.
The main character travels in the story from asteroid to asteroid. He visits, first of all, the nearest ones, where people live alone. Each asteroid has a number, like a modern apartment multi-storey building. These numbers hint at the separation of people who live in neighboring apartments, but seem to live 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, like other kings, looked at the whole world in a very simplified way. For him, his subjects are all people. However, this king was tormented by the following question: “Who is to blame for the fact that his orders are impossible to fulfill?” The king taught the prince that it is more difficult to judge himself than others. Having mastered this, you can become truly wise. The power-hungry loves power, not subjects, and therefore is deprived of the latter.
The Prince Visits the Ambitious Planet
An ambitious man lived on another planet. But vain people are deaf to everything except praise. The ambitious man loves only fame, 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 ends up completely confused. This man is ashamed of his drinking. However, he drinks in order to forget about his conscience.
Business man
The business man owned the fourth planet. As an analysis of the fairy tale “The Little Prince” shows, the meaning of his life was that one should 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 good for his flower and the volcanoes that he owns them. But the stars have no benefit from such possession.
Lamplighter
And only on the fifth planet main character finds someone he wants to be friends with. This is a lamplighter who would be despised by everyone, because he thinks not only about himself. However, his planet is tiny. There's no room for two here. The lamplighter works 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, everything is meaningless - honor, power, labor, science, conscience, and capital. The little prince also leaves this planet. The analysis of the work continues with a description of our planet.
The Little Prince on Earth
The last place the prince visited was a strange Earth. When he arrives here, he feels even more lonely title character Exupery's story "The Little Prince". The analysis of a work when describing it should be more detailed than when describing other planets. After all, the author special attention in the story he focuses specifically on the Earth. He notices that this planet is not home at all, it is “salty”, “all in needles” and “completely dry”. It's uncomfortable to live there. 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 thousand geographers, 900 thousand 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 selling 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 whole. Millions remain strangers to each other. What do they live for? There are a lot of people rushing on fast trains - why? People are not connected by pills or fast trains. And the planet will not become a home without this.
Friendship with Fox
After analyzing Exupery's "The Little Prince", we found out that the boy is bored on Earth. And 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 stores where you can buy a friend.
The author describes the life before meeting the boy, which was led by the Fox from the story “The Little Prince”. allows us to note that before this meeting he was only fighting for his existence: he hunted chickens, and hunters hunted him. The fox, having tamed, broke out of 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.
Pilot in the desert
It is easy to imagine a planet in habitable places as a home. However, in order to understand what home is, you need to be in the desert. This is precisely what the analysis of Exupery’s “The Little Prince” suggests. In the desert, the main character met a pilot, with whom he later became friends. The pilot ended up here not only because of a malfunction of the plane. He has been enchanted by the desert all his life. The name of this desert is loneliness. The pilot understands important secret: there is meaning in life when there is someone to die for. The desert is a place in which a person feels a thirst for communication and thinks about the meaning of existence. It reminds us that man’s home is the Earth.
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 they have tamed. If we all understood this, there would probably be no wars or economic problems. But people are very often blind, do not listen to their own hearts, leave their home, seeking happiness far from their family and friends. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry did not write his fairy tale “The Little Prince” for fun. The analysis of the work carried out in this article, we hope, has convinced you of this. The writer appeals to all of us, urging us to take a close look at those who surround us. After all, these are our friends. They must be protected, according to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (“The Little Prince”). Let's finish the analysis of the work here. We invite readers to reflect on this story for themselves and continue the analysis with their own observations.