#10: Le Petit Prince

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a French aristocrat writer and poet who wrote the highly acclaimed book entitled "The Little Prince". This book is the most read and translated book in French, thanks to the story and underlying message within the book which has captivated both children and adults alike. Although it is classified as a children's book, it incorporates profound and idealistic observations of life and human nature. 

In the beginning of the book, the narrator, which is The Pilot, begins his story by retelling his life as a young boy, describing how he showed a drawing of his to the adults. The following is an excerpt from the book itself.

My drawing No. 1 was like this:

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups and asked them if my drawing frightened them.

They answered: "Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?" My drawing did not represent a hat. It was supposed to be a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. So I made another drawing of the inside of the boa constrictor to enable the grown-ups to understand. They always need explanations. My drawing No. 2 looked like this: 

The grown-ups then advised me to give up my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and to devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. Thus it was that I gave up a magnificent career as a painter at the age of six. I had been disappointed by the lack of success of my drawing No. 1 and my drawing No. 2. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves and it is rather tedious for children to have to explain things to them time and again.

The excerpt above is just one example of the abstract content within the book which depicted the profound observations of adults through the eyes of children and vice versa. Through this book, we come to see that sometimes we have to look at things in different ways and to see things in different perspectives. This book shows the creativity of a child in seeing what may not be as obvious as it seems to others.

"All grown-ups were children first. (But few remember it)." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

References: 

de Saint-Exupéry, A. (1995). Chapter One. In The Little Prince. (pp. 10-11). London, Great Britain: Wordsworth Classics.