Summary
Chapter XIX
The prince has only seen three small volcanoes the size of his knee, but now he sees a tall desert mountain and climbs it. At the top, he sees no people but just more rocky peaks. He calls out hello and an echo shouts the word back. He asks who it is and says he is lonely, but the words merely repeat. The prince thinks this is a peculiar planet; the people, wherever they are, just repeat back what you say to them.
He remembers his flower and how she always spoke first.
Chapter XX
Finally, after walking for a very long time, the prince comes across a road and then, to his astonishment, a rose garden. He becomes very sad because his flower had told him she was the only one like herself, and here were five thousand!
The prince thinks to himself how annoyed she would be and how she would cough and try to avoid being laughed at. He thinks about her and his three volcanoes and muses that he is not much of a prince. He sits down and weeps.
Chapter XXI
A fox appears and says good morning. At first the prince cannot see him but the fox says he is under the apple tree. The prince asks the fox to play with him, but the fox replies that he cannot do that because he is not tamed. Curious, the prince asks what that means. The fox does not answer but asks what the prince is looking for. The prince replies “people” and the fox scoffs that people hunt with guns and raise chickens, the latter being the only interesting thing about people.
The prince clarifies that he is looking for friends and presses the fox on what “tamed” means. The fox explains that it means creating ties. For example, he says, the prince is one boy of many and means nothing to him right now; also, the fox means nothing to him right now either. But if the prince tames the fox, then they will need each other and “you’ll be the only boy in the world for me. I’ll be the only fox in the world for you” (59).
The prince ruminates. He mentions his flower and the fox is intrigued, especially when he learns the boy is from a different planet. He sighs that his life is monotonous because he hunts chickens and people hunt him. However if the prince tames him then his life will improve because he will hear the prince’s footsteps and be happy. He will look over at the wheat fields and feel something for the first time because his prince’s hair is gold. He will love the sound of the wind in the wheat. He pauses and looks at the prince. Finally, he asks the prince to tame him.
The prince replies that he would like to but has no time because he must find friends and learn things. The fox sighs that the “only things you learn are the things you tame” (60). The prince asks what it would entail. The fox says the boy would have to be patient, sit away from him and wait, and then the fox will watch him and day by day he will creep closer.
The prince does this, then returns the next day. The fox instructs him to return at the same time so he can start to become excited about it and prepare his heart. This, after all, is a rite. When asked what this is, the fox explains that “it’s the fact that one day is different from the other days, one hour different from the others hours” (61).
Over time, then, the prince tames the fox. He must leave eventually, though, and the fox proclaims he will weep. He tells the prince that first he must go look at the roses because he will realize that his flower is the only rose in the world for him. He must then return and the fox will tell him a secret.
The prince walks to the roses and tells the roses that they are nothing like his flower because no one has tamed them. They are like how his fox was, but now his fox is tamed. They are lovely, but they are empty. His rose is the most important because he watered her and sheltered her and killed caterpillars for and talked to and listened to. She is his rose.
The prince and the fox exchange goodbyes. The fox tells him the secret: “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes” (63). He adds that it was the time the prince spent on his rose that mattered; he ought not to forget this, for many people have. The prince repeats that he is responsible for his rose.
Chapter XXII
The prince meets a railway switchman who tells him how he runs the trains. The prince marvels at the haste the people demonstrate. He wonders why the people must move and why they aren’t satisfied where they are; the man replies that no one is ever satisfied where they are. He says only the children look out the window. The prince says seriously that only children know what they are looking for.
Chapter XXIII
The prince meets a salesclerk who sells pills that you take so you do not have to drink for a week. He says that a person saves so much time not having to pour and drink water. The prince asks how much. The salesclerk replies that it is fifty-three minutes a week. The prince wrinkles his brow and says he’d use that fifty-three minutes to go to a water fountain.
Chapter XXIV
It is the eighth day since the narrator landed, and he tells the prince that he is finishing his water supply. The prince does not seem to understand the danger and muses that it is good to have a friend, even if you are about to die. He looks at the narrator, though, and says he is also thirsty so they should find a well.
The two walk for several hours but do not find anything. The narrator feels a little woozy on account of thirst. All the prince says is that water can be good for the heart too. The boy sits down, quite tired, and the narrator joins him. The prince says quietly that the stars are beautiful because of a flower one cannot see.
A few minutes pass. The prince says the desert is beautiful and the narrator agrees. The prince adds that it is beautiful because it hides a well somewhere. Something clicks in the narrator’s head and he says that yes, the stars and desert and places like that (a house of his comes to mind) are beautiful because of what is invisible. The prince is falling asleep but tells the narrator he is glad he agrees with his fox.
The narrator picks up the sleeping boy and marvels at what a fragile treasure he is; there seems to be nothing more fragile in the world. However, the boy is just a shell and what matters is what is invisible and inside. The boy smiles in his sleep. The narrator thinks to himself that the boy is like a lamp and cannot be allowed to be blown out.
The narrator finds the well at daybreak.
Chapter XXV
This well looks more like a village than an isolated Sahara well. The prince laughs and pulls the pulley. The narrator volunteers to help and pulls up the water. The narrator raises the bucket to the prince and the boy happily drinks. It does the narrator’s heart good and reminds him of Christmas as a child.
Now that he has had water, the narrator feels better. He should feel happy, he thinks, so why is he so sad?
The prince tells him not to forget the muzzle for the sheep and that his baobabs are not well done. The narrator frowns but the boy says children understand. The narrator draws the muzzle and hands it reluctantly to the prince and tells him he seems to have plans he does not know about.
The prince sighs that tomorrow is the anniversary of his fall to Earth. The narrator realizes that he was returning to where he fell.
The prince quietly tells the narrator to work on his engine and to come back tomorrow, and the narrator feels reluctant to do so and remembers the fox and how if one is tamed, tears can come.
Chapter XXVI
As the narrator approaches the well the next evening, he hears the prince talking and telling someone to wait where his tracks are and that he will be there tonight. The prince also asks if the poison is good and if he will suffer long.
The narrator’s heart beats faster. He sees the prince talking to a yellow snake, and tries to pull out his revolver but the creature is gone in a flash. He rushes over to the boy and asks what he is doing. He gives the boy water and notices his face is serious. The prince puts his arms around the narrator’s neck and his little heart seems to beat too quickly.
The prince softly says that he is glad his friend’s engine is fixed; the narrator marvels at this since he was just going to tell him that. The boy whispers that he is also leaving and it is much further and much more difficult here than he thought.
As the narrator holds the boy it seems like he is slipping further and further into the abyss, and the narrator mourns the fact that he will not be able to hear his laugh anymore. The prince murmurs that it has been a year since he fell to Earth, and that the most important things are unseen – the flower, the stars. He tells the narrator that he can look up and know the prince’s star is up there and that will bring meaning to the stars – he can know that the prince is there, laughing, and he will be glad he knew the prince. They will always be friends.
The prince’s voice grows serious. He tells the narrator not to come tonight because it will look like he is suffering and dying and he does not want the snake to go for a second bite. The narrator insists he will be there.
Though he does not catch the boy slip away, the narrator does manager to find him before the end. The prince says he cannot take his body but that it is only a shell anyway. The narrator is silent. The prince tries again, telling him he can always look up at the stars. He begins to weep.
After a moment he sits down, talking of his poor, weak flower. He stands. A yellow thing flashes near his feet and the prince sways, then falls over gently into the sand.
Chapter XXVII
It has been six years since the narrator returned home to relieved friends. He never found the prince’s body and is somewhat consoled by this fact as he looks up into the stars at night. He does worry, though, because he never drew a muzzle on the sheep and he wonders if it ate the flower. Then he consoles himself that the flower is under glass and the prince watches the sheep so it must be fine.
All of this is a mystery. It is of great importance, though, that one thinks about how monumental it would be if the sheep eats the flower.
Epilogue
The narrator draws the desert and calls it the “loveliest and saddest landscape in the world” (85). He says if anyone sees a little boy who looks like the prince, be kind and send word that he has come back.
Analysis
Perhaps the most important meeting the prince has is not with one of the grownups but with the fox, a wise creature in the role of teacher who helps the boy come to terms with what real love looks and feels like. The flower is not important because of what it looks like, but because the prince has spent time and effort “taming” it. Critic Adam Gopnik suggests that the novel is “a journey of exile, away from the generic experience towards the eroticism of the particular flower. To be responsible for his rose, the prince learns, is to see it as it really is, in all its fragility and vanity – indeed, in all its commonness! –without loving it less for being so fragile.”
Of course, the prince’s realization of what his flower truly means to him is not enough to “save” him. He is too tired, too beleaguered in body and soul to remain existing in the Sahara so he turns to that purveyor of death, the snake. Most readers conclude that the prince does indeed die, but there is enough ambiguity in the way Saint-Exupéry describes the boy’s end to cast a little doubt on the claim. Critic Anne Dodd posits, “If life can have more meaning, death, too, has another meaning here. Although it causes the prince’s body to disappear, the union of hearts has survived. Taking the time to tame someone in life makes this survival possible. Perhaps there is a hint here of a life after death, for the little prince does return to his planet and his rise; would that not be heaven for him?” Laurence Gagnon adds rather poetically, “since the little prince is a star-child, innocent and true, there is a resurrection.”
This is somewhat cold comfort for the narrator, however. He feels that he has “tamed” the boy but cannot let him go like the fox let the boy go. He has formed an attachment and has trouble contemplating his existence without the boy. He eventually realizes that he has to let go, and though he joins the prince at the time of his death he stands at a distance and does not interfere when the snake bites him. Once back at home he vacillates between fretting about whether or not he put a muzzle on the sheep and looking at and listening to the stars to remind him of the prince. In the latter he is embodying the fox’s explanation that something as simple as a wheatfield will now have meaning because it reminds him of his friend.
As this is a philosophical work, the author puts global themes in a generalized abstract form. He considers the evil theme in two aspects: on the one hand - this is "micro evil," evil living within an individual. This is deadness and ennui of inhabitants of the planets that embody all human vices. It is no coincidence the inhabitants of the Earth planet are characterized by the inhabitants of the planets seen by the little prince. The author underscores just how petty and dramatic the world is. But Saint-Exupéry is not a pessimist. He believes that humanity will come upon the mystery of being, and each person will find his beacon that will illuminate his path in life. A second aspect of the theme of evil can be conventionally labeled "macro evil." Baobab is a spiritual image of evil in general. One interpretation of this is metaphorical image associated with fascism. Saint-Exupéry wanted people to carefully uproot the evil "baobabs" that threatened to tear the planet apart. "Beware of baobabs!" Misunderstanding and the alienation of people is another important issue.
Saint-Exupéry does not just affect the subject of misunderstanding between adult and child, but the theme of loneliness and lack of understanding in a cosmic scale. Deadness of human soul leads to loneliness. People judge others only by the "outer shell" without seeing the main - the inner moral beauty. Reading Saint-Exupéry, we can change the angle of view on banal, everyday phenomena. He leads to the comprehension of obvious truth: it is impossible to hide the stars in the glass and it is senseless to count them. One needs to take care of those one is responsible for, and one must listen to the voice of one’s own heart. Everything is simple and at the same time very difficult.
