Andrew+Desir-+Little+Prince+Essay

The Little Prince is a novel about a boy from a distant planet that journeys to other planets. On his odyssey, he meets many adults who are very selfish, narcissistic adults who only care about their "matter of consequence." The author continueously tried to state the difference between children and adults. I believe the author was trying to say that kids have more imagination than adults. Adults are more concerned about money or their jobs and don't really look outside of the box like children do. Adults and children don't view the world as clearly as children do because of their lack of imagination. There are many examples in the novel to support this statement.

One example of an adult's focus on work would be the lamp-lighter. The lamp-lighter was only focused on his job which was lighting a lamp. He was unaware of his surroundings and so focused on that one job, he didn't even look around to see he was the only one on the whole planet. If he would have known that, he wouldn't have lighted the lamp so often when the planet revolved and rotated constantly. Another example of an adult's view on life would be the business man. At all hours of the day, he counts stars and claims ownership to them. He doesn't realize that owning the stars is of no use to him at all. The businessman was so concerned with his "matter of consequence," he doesn't realize anything is going on around him. This also shows how adults are too focused on one job. The next example of the way adults are is the conceited man. He is so narcissistic, he doesn't here anything but praise towards him. He was so into himself he didn't really notice anything. The conceited man would be an example of how adults are usually worried about their appearence as opposed to their other features such as their personality. The last and most confusing example would be the tippler. He was a heavy drinker getting his drinks from an unknown place. He drank because he wanted to forget that he was ashamed of drinking in the first place. This would most likely be an example of an adult's bigoted view on life. A child wouldn't make a complete circle like the tippler did. A child's mind, according to the author is more clear.

I agree with the author's statement on this, but I also think that adults have a reason for most of it. Adults have to support themselves and support others if they have a family. To support them, you have to have a job and have to be good at it. That is why adults are usually concerned with their work. On top of that, adults must keep a nice appearence too show to others. That way, they can meet new people and have more oppurtunities in life because most people base their opinions on appearence as opposed to personality. An adult's view on life is based on what they know and what they learned so its not all of their fault if they seem shallow or selfish. I think that the adults' personalities were too extreme even for a fantasy novel. No person is incapable of hearing anything not complimenting them. It doesn't make sense. I also think not just adults, but everybody acts like that even if its just a little bit.

In conclusion, The Little Prince is a novel about how adult and child personalities differ. Adults lack imagination while children are flooded with it. This may be true, but it was not written well in the novel and exaggerated too much. The author also failed to say how children become like that when they are changing into adults and how come.

Andrew--You seem to have the right idea of what the author is trying to get us to see. Children are more interesting than adults. I like the line you stated, "A child's mind, according to the author is more clear" --that is what he wants us to see. You did a nice job with showing how the adults are narrow minded, but you didn't really show the examples of the children being imaginative or creative. You need to show that...that is a key part of the essay. It's interesting that you said the author failed to say how and why we change as we grow--that's the sad part of life. We should have a bit of both sides! He purposely exaggerated the characters to make them extreme--that's the point of satire and allegory. Overall--good job, but more of the children's perspective is needed.