THE LITTLE PRINCE | Study Guide| Symbols:

    SYMBOLS:

• The Dessert.
• The Baobabs.
• Water.           
• The Snake.
• The Stars.
• The Rose.

The Dessert:

The dessert represents loneliness and lack of meaning in the lives of the two characters (the narrator & the little prince).

The narrator, who is a pilot, runs his life as a reluctant grown up, feeling out of place, lost and friendlessness.

Loneliness has driven the little prince from his home planet, he sets out to know the meaning of life  but the series of disappointing visit to the neighbor planets  has taught him nothing about the true meaning of life.

“Something broke down in my engine”  - more personal in nature.

The Dessert looks bleak and desolate,  but it is not so. All one has to do is to look deeper to discover a well, to discover its water that  is sweeter than any imaginable  and quenches more than physical thirst.

Look deeper and there is something wonderful waits that will nourish the soul. The trick is only to see with the heart. To see the invisible, to imagine and discover a hidden well of sweet nourishing water in the dessert, to discover other wonders that gives life meaning – all these are possible if one looks by the heart’s eye.

In   this way the Dessert symbolizes a key idea in the story: “what is important or essential, is not visible to the eye” (appearances are deceiving).

The Baobabs: (major symbol)

The Baobabs and their deceptively small seeds represents problems or bad habits, of mankind in general, that may seem insignificant but if left to grow unchecked, can become a threat of people’s very existence.

Water: ( symbol of life and spiritual fulfillment)

The water that nourishes the body becomes a symbol of the friendship, love and other qualities, that people add to life, that nourish the soul and give meaning to existence.

The Snake:

The Snake is used to symbolize DEATH or means of REBIRTH or RETURN: the snake is respectful to the Prince.  It bites him only when he is ready to return home.

It simply reminds the readers that sometime one must die figuratively in order to move into the next step of being human (resurrection to  new life).

The Stars:

The stars symbolize the universe, its mystery  and the unknown for people or curiosity.

The Rose:

Symbol of love,  beauty and feminity.

*we get the idea of  ‘Appearance ----vs.----- Reality’.