Alex+Gonzalez-+Little+Prince+Essay

so my essay erased itself and its about 8:30 so mrs. muldoon im very sorry if its not done by 9:03 but im working on it.

3/15/10 Essay #2

In the book __The Little Prince__ the author draws a distinct line between adult and child-hood. He portrays adults as narrow-minded & unimaginative while displaying children as insightful and creative. In doing this the author appears slightly biased, but he uses various characters to get this point across but i find the most important to be the switchman and the little prince himself.

As the book progresses peculiar characters are introduced and of these characters i believe two main sub catoragories can be digested. One group being the prideful and confident, the other group spending their time basking in self pity. the switchman i find to be an unusual hybrid not so much as solemn in his solidarity or as proud as the rest but still is as confident in his opinion. The prince meets the switchman due to mere chance while walking along some railroad tracks their conversation is quite an interesting one. As a train goes by the prince asks the switchman why they are going and what they could be pursuing. The switchman makes what i think to be a ridiculous comment "No one is ever satisfied where he is," and "They are pursuing nothing at all." These two statements caused me to look at the text puzzled as to why such an accusation was made agaisnt "grown-ups" have they really ever done that bad a thing for which they are ridicouled as such. Maybe they are satisfied where they lived and are forced to leave because of money, a new job, or a family disaster; maybe they are pursuing a career, a wife, or a family. There are so many places to be and to go in this world it'd be astonishing for one to have no reason of travel. The switchman then says, "They are asleep in there, or if they are not asleep they are yawning. Only the children are flattening their noses agaisnt the windowpanes." And this i found to be even more of a horrendous statement; saying that grown-ups are sleeping, sleeping through life, motionless in the proccess.

The little prince seems to be just as cloudy minded as the rest. After almost every visit he seems to add "The grown-ups are certainly very,very odd," which i found rude. If the prince is suppossed to display this open-minded, free spirited character he is far from it. If anything he is as judging and non-understanding as any other bistander. The author through his inability to keep his own opinion out of certain characters made me find the prince and the switchman to be more narrow minded then they accuse the adults of being. And the author himself may be one of the most opinionated ive ever read from.

As you can tell, I completely dissagree with the authors division of adult hood and child hood. Because after all one of the best things about being a kid is acting like you're a grown up and as you get older you like to pertend you're a kid again.

Alex--There are a few points with which I am confused--I think I know what point you are trying to make, but then your examples don't back them up. You state what you think the author's point is with children and adults, but your example of the switchman doesn't show the whole picture. He is a character making a statement for the author-and you're right--he is judging, but he is not an example of the narrow mindedness. Show one of the men on the asteroids for that. You also have to show the difference in a child's imagination/creativeness and the lack of one in an adult. I understand the points you disagree with, but they are not the points you were supporting from your opening paragraph. I fee as though you missed the point. Look more at what the swicthman's comments mean--what is the difference there with the two groups? Then you may agree or disagree with that--which you started to do, but then the point seems to have been lost. Sorry--I feel this is all over the place--not much focus. I know you were scrambling to write it again after it was erased--sorry that happened to you.