Nadia+J--Little+Prince+Essay

Throughout his journey, the Little Prince encouters a variety of "strange" adults; each of them having thier own matter of concern. The Little Prince can learn life lessons from all the adults he meets. Two of them, the King and the Lamp Lighter, show the Little Prince a taste of what its like being an adult.

The Lamp Lighter. His life revolves around the job of turning the light on during the day and then turning it off at night. The strange thing about it is, each day is only a minute long on his planet, making his job nearly endless.

"I follow a terrible profession. In the old days it was reasonable. I put the lamp out in the morning, and in the evening I lighted it again. I had the rest of the day for relaxation and the rest of the night for sleep."

"And the orders have been changed since that time?"

"The orders have not been changed," said the lamplighter. "That is the tragedy! From year to year the planet has turned more rapidly and the orders have not been changed!"

"Then what?" asked the Little Prince.

"Then the planet now makes a complete turn every minute, and I no longer have a single second for repose. Once every minute I have to light my lamp and put it out!" Little Prince pg.

And thats all there is too it. His matter of concern is direction, intruction and change. Each time the Prince asked the lamp lighter why he was doing it, his reply was those are orders. The lamp lighter was the only person that the Little Prince believed could of been his friend because his work has meaning and he thinks of someone/thing besides himself. The lamplighter needed change so he can rest and sleep normaly during the day like he use to, but he could not change without orders from his "higher power" (the one who gave him the orders). When this book was written, i think Antoine de Saint-Exupery made this character to generalize people who follow their bosses with out putting their own common sense into play. They just follow directions without hesitation no matter how ridiculous the task is.

The King. He is the ruler of everything. He does not permit insubordination. He gives any order he wants and his subjects always listen. To him, everybody is a subject. His orders are resonable because he wants them to be. He is a king.

"For what the king fundamentally insisted upon was that his authority should be respected. He tolerated no disobedience. He was an absolute monarch. But, because he was a very good man, he made his orders reasonable." Little Prince pg. 42

If the Little Prince had a question, the king ordered him to ask a question; If the Little Prince had to yawn, the king ordered him to yawn, and if the the Little Prince could not yawn, the king ordered him not to. Can you see the pattern? It was almost impossible to disobey the king and thats why nobody/nothing did. The king really had no power and knows he has no one to order he just trys to work his way around it.

"Hum! Hum!" said the king. "I have good reason to believe that somewhere on my planet there is an old rat. I hear him at night. You can judge this old rat. From time to time you will condemn him to death. Thus his life will depend on your justice. But you will pardon him on each occasion; for he must be treated thriftily. He is the only one we have." Little Prine pg. 46-47

The Kings matter of concern is power and authority. He relates to people today in society who love to be in charge and give orders just because it makes them feel special. The lesson learned is nobody likes a monarch, thats why in the end the Little Prince left the planet and never retuned.

Nadia--Overall, you have some good points, but I feel the paper is disjointed. The breaks between paragraphs and points are too blunt--it doesn't seem to flow. I don't agree with the lesson learned from the king--it's not saying no one likes a monarch; the point is in the king's behavior as not being effective. I need more of how the prince is afffected and what his thoughts are about the rulings of the king. The quotes are fine to use, but you need more of your own reaction and support for the point.