FREE ESSAY ON CHILD WITHIN

CHILD WITHIN

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