Wonders Why Flowers Need Thorns

The novel begins with a narrator’s tone. "When I was six years old, I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It showed boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion. I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil, I succeeded in making my first drawing. I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

But they answered: "Frighten? Why should anyone be frightened by a hat?"

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of a boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained.

The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two.

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

So, then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.”

The book has been published in 173 languages and has sold 80+ million copies to date. The name of the book is “The Little Prince” written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

After leaving the military in 1923, he became interested in writing and published his first book in 1925. In 1944, while flying from Borgo in Corsica, his plane suddenly disappeared from radar.

Like the Little Prince in his story, Saint-Exupéry's life ended in mystery.

In honor of his literary contributions, France issued a fifty franc note featuring images of the Little Prince and the boa constrictor that swallowed an elephant from his story.

What makes "The Little Prince" worth reading again and again?

Though commonly identified as a children's book, Saint-Exupéry's novel conveys profound truths about life. The questions posed by the Little Prince are philosophical. They describe the mystery and absurdity of life and urge us to approach the world without preconceived notions.

The narrator, a pilot, crash-lands his plane in Sahara Desert due to a mechanical failure.

Stranded without any help, he finds himself struggling with a life-or-death situation and he hears a small voice calling out to him. It is the voice of the Little Prince, a beautiful young boy.

The boy asks him to draw a sheep. After a long journey in adulthood, the boy, out of nowhere, asked him to draw a sheep, and the narrator really wonders how the boy ended up there. The pilot then learns that the boy is from another planet and starts to question him. The Little Prince begins to tell him where he came from.

The Little Prince's planet is slightly larger than a house. He mentions that he once watched the sunset forty-three times in a single day, explaining that sunsets comfort him when he is feeling sad.

The Little Prince talks to flowers, worries about what the sheep in the drawing will eat, and wonders why flowers need thorns. Living alone on his planet, he takes care of all the chores, including cleaning his planet.

The story doesn't have many twists and turns and no other significant characters. The Little Prince often behaves like a seer. He questions how people who don't know how to take care of a single flower can be expected to protect the Earth.

Similarly, he laments that a man who knows how to grow thousands of roses still doesn't understand a single rose. The novel describes how nature has given so much to humanity and how people, failing to appreciate it, end up destroying it.

The Little Prince sees stars in the sky not just as mere lights, but as unknown laughter to the eyes. He teaches that one must feel them to understand them and then moves on after learning this lesson. The aviator, who has come from his own town, is unable to forget an unforgettable event in his life. He realizes that the little prince, like himself, will remember him and the sheep he drew, as well as the boa constrictor that he holds for the world, and that he will come back again with an echo of longing.

This small novel, spanning 96 pages, creates a deep emotional impact.

All adults were once children at some point in time. At some point, it is essential for all of us to encounter the little prince within ourselves.

You will experience a poetic journey by reading it.

?Inspired by the speech of the author S. Ramakrishnan about The Little Prince

-?????? Arul Raja