Student Question
Why did the Little Prince doubt the rose in the story?
Quick answer:
The Little Prince doubts the rose because he realizes she is vain and self-centered, often exaggerating her importance and making claims without basis. Her tendency to impress leads to inconsistencies, such as requesting protection from elements she couldn't have known. The prince learns that her words lack significance, and he becomes unhappy from taking them seriously. This realization teaches him to evaluate by deeds rather than words, leading to his doubt in her sincerity.
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The little prince begins to understand the character of his rose as soon as he begins talking with her. From their first conversation, the little prince must face the fact that the rose is very vain and self-centered, much more interested in herself than in anything or anyone else.
"Oh! How beautiful you are!" "Am I not?" the flower responded, sweetly. "And I was born at the same moment as the sun..." The little prince could guess easily that she was not any too modest
The rose seems quite determined to impress the little prince with how very special she is, but she exaggerates her situation at times and nearly gets herself in trouble as a result. She requests protection from cold and wind in the form of a glass globe, beginning to explain what it had been like in the place from which she had come. She stops just as she realizes that she could not know anything about where she came from. "She had come in the form of a seed. She could not have known anything of any other worlds."
The little prince comes to understand that much of what the rose says really has no significance or true meaning. This is the reason for his doubting of anything she says. "He had taken seriously words which were without importance, and it made him very unhappy." The little prince comes to understand the need to evaluate all things, even his beloved friend the rose "by deeds and not by words."
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