Childhood, Immortality and the Little Prince
One of the reasures I inherited from my grandmother “Nanný” when she passed, was a soft copy of The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antone de Saint-Exupéry. It is a beautiful 1946 edition in French with original illustrations. This tome has been read, that I know, by at least five generations in my family (my daughters included) in its original language.
This Little book of les tan 100 pages is the fourth most translated book in history; it has been translated to over 250 languages and it grosses annual sales of more than two million copies. In France it was named the most noteworthy book of the 20th century.
And here we may wonder: ¿What is so extraordinary bout this book, written as a story …show more content…
There is something marvelous in childhood that we lose with time. We stop dreaming about being a fireman or an astronaut; we stop playing with marbles and cars; our bike ceases to be a rapid stallion, and the tree in the middle of the park is no longer a rocket to distant worlds. We leave behind the time when a girlfriend was a soft whisper and never a kiss. That age when our “why” would not let people rest. To grow up eventually becomes the slow murder of the child that we all were at a time. We lose a type of purity that is replaced by selfishness, envy, arrogance, and …show more content…
At the end of the novel, the Little Prince is confronted with a yellow serpent, the type that “kills you in less than thirty seconds.” “Do you have good venom?, Are your sure I will not suffer long?” Asked the Little Prince. Finally, the serpent’s venom would become his ticket to “go back home” to the asteroid with his rose, his volcanoes, his sunsets, and his sheep. “The following morning”, Antoine tells us, “I was comforted…though not completely. Because I know well that he is back to his planet, for I could not find his body on the sand.”
I remember Reading the Little Prince many times as a child, but I don’t remember ever feeling anguish or nostalgia after the episode with the yellow serpent. After all, The Little Prince returned to his planet, with his flower, his sheep, and his sunrises! But now as an adult, mind and reason tell me that in reality he was bitten by a poisonous snake. The Little Prince must have died without question…that is what happens when you are wounded by a viper.
At bottom we long to continue thinking like a child. There is this strange relationship between eternity and childhood that we lose with the passing of the years. I believe this relationship is very real and that is why this book has touched the hearts of so many. We have, very deep in our soul, a desire and a thirst for eternal things, starting with our own
One of the reasures I inherited from my grandmother “Nanný” when she passed, was a soft copy of The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antone de Saint-Exupéry. It is a beautiful 1946 edition in French with original illustrations. This tome has been read, that I know, by at least five generations in my family (my daughters included) in its original language.
This Little book of les tan 100 pages is the fourth most translated book in history; it has been translated to over 250 languages and it grosses annual sales of more than two million copies. In France it was named the most noteworthy book of the 20th century.
And here we may wonder: ¿What is so extraordinary bout this book, written as a story …show more content…
There is something marvelous in childhood that we lose with time. We stop dreaming about being a fireman or an astronaut; we stop playing with marbles and cars; our bike ceases to be a rapid stallion, and the tree in the middle of the park is no longer a rocket to distant worlds. We leave behind the time when a girlfriend was a soft whisper and never a kiss. That age when our “why” would not let people rest. To grow up eventually becomes the slow murder of the child that we all were at a time. We lose a type of purity that is replaced by selfishness, envy, arrogance, and …show more content…
At the end of the novel, the Little Prince is confronted with a yellow serpent, the type that “kills you in less than thirty seconds.” “Do you have good venom?, Are your sure I will not suffer long?” Asked the Little Prince. Finally, the serpent’s venom would become his ticket to “go back home” to the asteroid with his rose, his volcanoes, his sunsets, and his sheep. “The following morning”, Antoine tells us, “I was comforted…though not completely. Because I know well that he is back to his planet, for I could not find his body on the sand.”
I remember Reading the Little Prince many times as a child, but I don’t remember ever feeling anguish or nostalgia after the episode with the yellow serpent. After all, The Little Prince returned to his planet, with his flower, his sheep, and his sunrises! But now as an adult, mind and reason tell me that in reality he was bitten by a poisonous snake. The Little Prince must have died without question…that is what happens when you are wounded by a viper.
At bottom we long to continue thinking like a child. There is this strange relationship between eternity and childhood that we lose with the passing of the years. I believe this relationship is very real and that is why this book has touched the hearts of so many. We have, very deep in our soul, a desire and a thirst for eternal things, starting with our own