Discussion Topic

Lessons Learned by the Little Prince Through Travels and Encounters

Summary:

In The Little Prince, the prince learns crucial lessons through his travels and encounters. From the fox, he discovers the importance of relationships and faithfulness, understanding that love stems from "taming" or forming bonds, making his rose unique and special. The fox also teaches him responsibility for what he tames. The snake imparts the idea of returning to one's origins, highlighting the spiritual over the corporeal world. These encounters emphasize caring for others and valuing unseen, meaningful connections.

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What does the little prince learn from his travels and encounters?

The little prince is desolate when he comes to earth and finds that the rose he left behind on his tiny planet is not unique. There are millions of roses on earth, which look exactly like his rose. However, the prince learns a vitally important lesson from the fox he meets. The prince discovers that we love what we "tame" or enter into a relationship with. The prince realizes that his rose is unique, not because it is the only one in the world but because it is the one rose he loves: it has "tamed" him.

The little prince learns from the snake that death is easy and is a way to get back home. The snake teaches him, too, that one can be lonely even if surrounded by people but that he, the snake, can release the prince from that loneliness and send him home.

As he travels...

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to different planets, the little prince learns by negative example what are unimportant values. For example, on his visits to different asteroids, he meets a king, a conceited man, a tippler (alcoholic), a businessman, a lamplighter, and a geographer. He finds all of them but the lamplighter "ridiculous" because their concerns seem self-centered and pointless. He values the lamplighter, however, because of his faithfulness about doing his job:

He is thinking of something else besides himself.

The prince learns that it is best to get beyond yourself and care about other people and things.

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In The Little Prince, what two main lessons does the prince learn and from whom?

One of the most important lessons is learned through the fox. It can be said that through the fox the prince learns the value of faithfulness. The prince has wandered far from his own planet and from the rose, the one he loves, because he felt she had rejected him. In contrast, the fox teaches him that when one "tames" something, that something becomes extra special. When one tames something, one needs that something and that something needs you in return. As the fox explains, if the prince tamed him then they would be unique to each other in all the world and need each other. In addition, the fox explains that if the prince tamed him the fox's life would have meaning and that things that were of no use to him now would suddenly be of use, such as the wheat fields. The wheat fields are the same color of the prince's hair and so looking at the wheat fields would remind the fox of the prince. In short, the fox teaches the prince that his flower has tamed him. But more importantly, when the prince decides it is time to leave the fox, the fox teaches the prince that he is responsible for what he tames; he is therefore responsible for his rose, as we see in the fox's lines, "It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important ... You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose ..." (Ch. 21). It is due to the fox's wisdom that the prince realizes he must return home to continue caring for his rose.
The snake also teaches him a very valuable lesson. Meeting the snake is the first time that the prince begins to see the value of reconnecting with his roots, as we see in the snake's line, "Whomever I touch, I send back to the earth from whence he came" (Ch. 17). In addition, he learns the value of the spiritual world rather than the corporeal world, something he also learns from the fox who teaches him that it is the things that can't be seen that are important. It is because of his knowledge of the value of things unseen that the prince becomes brave enough to leave his body behind in order to return to his flower.

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