Wandering Around| All Grown-ups Were Once Children First

被很多评论家称为“大人的童话”的《小王子》自1943年发表以来已经被译成了一百多种文字，作者用浅显易懂的语言表达出了最质朴而又最容易被人忽略的人生哲理，今天就让我们一起走进《小王子》的世界吧！

Brief Introduction

•The Little Prince is a novel by Antoine De Saint- Exupéry in which a little prince meets a pilot stranded in the desert. The prince tells the pilot that he was born on an asteroid（小行星） and he recounts（叙述） many strange encounters from his travels.

•The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language and the fourth most-translated book in the world. Translated into more than 250 languages and dialects with sales totaling over 140 million copies worldwide, it has become one of the best-selling books ever published.

Author

ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY, the "Winged Poet," was born in Lyon, France, in 1900. A pilot at twenty-six, he was a pioneer of commercial aviation and flew in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. His writings include The Little Prince, Wind, Sand and Stars, Night Flight, Southern Mail, and Airman's Odyssey. In 1944, while flying a reconnaissance（侦察） mission for his French air squadron（中队）, he disappeared over the Mediterranean.

Classic Quotes

●All grown-ups were once children— although few of them remember it.

所有大人当初都是孩子，但是很少有人记住这一点。

●It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;  what  is  essential is invisible to the eyes.

只有用心灵才能看见事物的本质。真正重要的东西，肉眼是无法看见的

●At  night,  when  you  look  at  the  sky, as  I  will  live  in  one  of  them,  as I will in one of them, then  it  will  be  for  you as  if  all  stars  were   laughing.  You  will  have  stars  that know how to laugh!

当你在夜晚抬头看星空，我就住在那其中一颗星球上，因为我在那颗星球对你笑，对你而言，就像整个星空都为你而笑一样，这样，你就拥有了为你而微笑的整片星空。

●It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important。

你在你的玫瑰花身上耗费的时间使得你的玫瑰花变得如此重要。

●Growing  up  is  not  a  problem,   forgetting is.

长大成人并不是问题，遗忘初心才是。

Analysis

•The Little Prince draws unflattering

（难看的） portraits  of  grown-ups  as  being hopelessly    narrow-minded.  In  contrast,   children   come  to    wisdom   through open-mindedness  and  ， a willingness to explore the  world  around  them  and  within themselves.

•The  main  theme  of   the   fable   is expressed in the secret that the fox tells the little prince: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  Adults have lost true perception, and only those who keep the child alive within them can see through the outward appearance of objects to the invisible essence within. 

Symbolism

Stars

Since the narrator is a pilot, he looks onto earth for navigation purposes. After the Pilot meets the little Prince, he learns that the prince lives among them, so the stars also represent friendship. The stars inThe Little Prince also symbolize the mystery of the universe, and at the end, the loneliness of the narrator’s life. In his final drawing, he draws one lone star shining down onto the desert.

Water

The water in the well symbolizes spiritual fear of dying. It is also a symbol of life.

King

King is depicted as a self-centered person who thinks highly of himself. However, this superiority brings only loneliness to him and causes people, like the little Prince to leave him. He thinks he knows everything and possesses everything, but in truth, he is very ignorant of the world beyond his miniature planet. The King represents people in our society who thinks of themselves as superior beings. They don't listen to other's opinions and disregard the consequences of their actions. In the end, all they get is disrespect instead of the respect that they believe they should have.

The  Clown

The Clown, like the King, is also very conceited（自负的）. However, unlike the King, he is so self-indulged that he lives his life looking for admirers. The Clown is like a blind person who cannot see the beauty of the world because he is so focused on himself. He also does not recognize faults within himself because he is so self-absorbed. He is living a life that is meaningless and full of lies because he fully believes that he is the most wonderful person in the world, even though he did nothing to build his reputation.

Desert

The novel's setting is in the Sahara Desert. This desert is barren, and is ready to be transformed. Therefore, the desert represents the narrator's mind, because it was made barren by grown-up ideas. Like the Sahara Desert, the narrator's mind is transformed, by the little Prince. This landscape was sad for the protagonist（主要人物）.

The Flower

Flowers blossom from tiny sprouts which grow from tiny seeds under the earth. Throughout the life of a flower, it changes, grows and blossoms. The flower in the story grows like this too, except she grows to becoming more mature and caring. At the beginning, she nags the little prince all the time and orders him to do stuff for her. She seems very conceited, but when the little Prince leaves, she feels very sad and thinks that it is her fault that the little Prince is leaving. The flower to the Prince, is the treasure and the "essential" that one can only see with the heart. He finally learns to appreciate her because he has lost her.

The Businessman

The Businessman represents the perfect adult because his mind is only occupied by numbers. As we grow up, our interests change because of what society demands of us. We must take responsibility and earn a living. Hence, we can no longer be a child and play with toys or play on playground.

The Tippler

The tippler, or the drunkard is a man who drinks because he is ashamed of drinking!! It's a vicious cycle that goes on forever... Such men are seen in real life.

Book Reviews

●Très   Beau   Livre   pour   Touset     Toujours（一本美丽的书）

Once I opened the first page, I couldn't put it down. This is a heartbreakingly beautiful story about love, friendship, and innocence. When I first read it as a freshman, I couldn't believe I was being forced to read a book for "babies", and I skipped many of the pages and passages that I couldn't understand. However, this book is exceptionally powerful and goes much deeper than the average children's novel. It has important lessons and reminders for someone of any age, and as I've come back to it over the years, I've found new ones each time. There is an unexplainable magic and warmth that surrounds this book, and I would sincerely recommend it to anyone.This book is also fantastic for language learning. All in all, in English or in French, this book is a classic for a reason, and I would encourage everyone to discover its spell for themselves.

●Reading The Little Prince was such a strange experience. It’s delightful. It’s funny. It’s adorable. 

The almost condescending attitude towards adults and the jokes at their expense makes this book appealing to kids since they can relate to being baffled by grown-ups. But as I’m laughing at the crazy adults and the crazy things they do, I had to stop for a second as it sank in that I do those crazy things, too. I found myself reflecting at the deeper story behind this prince and his cute travels to different planets. The little prince’s complete bewilderment at the behavior of adults challenged the way I think in so many ways.The little prince describes grown-ups as loving numbers and asking questions to get to know someone where the answers are numbers instead of questions about things that matter (like getting to know their personality).

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