Student Question
What details in The Little Prince support the idea that the children's world seems more real and easier than adults'?
Quick answer:
The children's world in "The Little Prince" is depicted as more real and easier than adults' because children possess a pure, practical vision, untouched by materialism. In Chapter 22, the railroad switchman highlights how adults rush blindly without knowing their destination, whereas children are curious and aware of what they truly want. This purity and focus on important things like love, as illustrated by the prince, suggest that children have a simpler, more fulfilling life.
I would actually hesitate to say that Saint-Exupery's point is to portray a
child's life as "easier," meaning lacking in difficulty or effort and free of
worry and care (Collins English Dictionary). On the contrary, both the little
prince and even the narrator were described as having very difficult
times in their childhood. Instead, Saint-Exupery argues that the
child and the child's vision of the world is
far more pure and even far more practical because children's visions have
not yet been influenced by materialism in the way that all of
the adults have been influenced by materialism. However, there is one chapter
in the book that can be interpreted as portraying children as having
easier lives while also portraying children as far more
practical than adults. In Chapter 22, the railroad
switchman has some very enlightening things to say about children.
In fact, the railroad switchman has...
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some very interesting things to say about adults as well as children. When the little prince sees for the first time the trains full of travelers thundering past, he notes that they seem to be in a "great hurry" and asks the switchman the very insightful question, "What are they looking for?" The switchman gives the equally enlightening reply, "Not even the locomotive engineer knows that" (Ch. 22). In other words, Saint-Exupery is using this exchange to point out the social reality that humanity is always in a rush to get they don't know where and to do they don't know what.Humanity lacks clear foresight. The
lack of foresight is further revealed in this exchange when the switchman
further points out that "no one is ever satisfied where he is"; and yet,
despite their lack of satisfaction and their eagerness to get
who knows where, they are actually all traveling blind. As the
switchman points out, "They are all asleep ... or if they are not asleep they
are yawning." The image of sleep is again a reference to
blindness or lack of foresight. The switchman further points out that
only the children are awake in the train cars and "flattening
their noses against the windowpanes" in pure excitement and curiosity. In other
words, only children are awake enough and have enough foresight to still enjoy
the world. The prince sheds further enlightenment when he points out that "only
the children know what they are looking for." In other words, only children are
still pure enough at heart to still be able to see what's truly
valuable in this world and to pursue it; only
children are non-materialistic or spiritual
enough to truly know what is worth wanting. The prince continues with an
analogy of a child crying when a rag doll is taken away, but not to show that
the child is materialistic. Instead, like the fox, the prince is pointing out
that the time spent on something or someone makes that something/someone
valuable and that time spent equates to love. Therefore, only children are
capable of understanding the things that are truly important, such as love.
Since children understand what they want, what is truly important, and
don't struggle in vain searching for it like adults, we can
say that children have an easier time of life than
adults.
Therefore, if you are going to write an essay about how life is easier for
children, I would focus on analyzing this chapter and show how the easiness of
life for children is related to their ability to still know what's truly
important in this world.