1. A Children’s Book for Adults or a Metaphor for Living
The Little Prince
A Children’s Book for Adults or a Metaphor for Living

2. The narrator who is telling the story has crashed his plane in the desert and while trying to survive and repair his plane, meets a “little prince” who has travelled from his planet to other planets to find meaning to life, explore the universe, and to escape the heartache of love.
The narrator, a grown-up pilot, reflects back on what he was like as a child and wanted to be an artist; however, was misunderstood by adults for his perception.
The little prince somebody very intently, his rose, on his planet but because he didn’t understand the rose and was afraid of unconditional love, he left to explore the universe to find meaning.
There is a dialogue between the narrator and the little prince on each’s understanding of the meaning of things.
There is also symbolic encounters between the little prince and other individuals on other planets.
There are conversations in the desert between the little prince and the snake, the fox, rose bushes, railway switchman, and a merchant whose deeper meaning is philosophical.
After eight days, the little prince become depressed about his recollections of the rose’s love and wants to return home or to the way things were before he left.
The little prince finds a well saving the pair; however, the little prince converses with the snake about dying and allows the snake to take his life.
The narrator, the next morning, cannot find the prince’s body but manages to repair his airplane and leave the desert.
The ending is a drawing where the prince and the narrator met and where the snake took the prince’s body.
The narrator pleas to be immediately contacted by anyone encountering a small person with golden curl who refused to answer any questions.
Plot Summary

3. The Little Prince, like all great books, fills this role by reminding us of who we are and what exactly it is that makes us so special.
The book is not an exercise in nostalgia or the desire to retreat to the past. Rather, it is an embrace of all that has gone into making up a full grown human being. We ought not to forget that we are rather rare creatures, made up of imagination and memory and dearly-won virtues. The past is part of who we are.
The Meaning of the Book

4. Adults aren’t disappointing simply because we have grown bigger, or obtained jobs, or taken on responsibilities. We are disappointing because for many of us these pursuits have taken on a disproportionate importance. We have forgotten how to see the world as it actually is and are blinded by appearances. We see people as statistics, education as functional, food as fuel, clothing as utilitarian, books as unnecessary luxury, and religion as morality.
The Message

5. The rose, for Saint-Exupery, represents love, the way in which we tame each other and allow ourselves to be tamed. It is this invisible virtue that makes one, single rose special. It isn’t the flower itself, after all, there are fields and fields of roses out there. By outward appearances, a rose is like any other rose. So how is it different? It is the invisible bond of love.
In order to have a truly perfect love, we are required in a way to become children again and learn to whole-heartedly trust and give all we have to the beloved. It isn’t as simple as retreating to childhood, though, because love brings with it responsibility. Again, we aren’t talking about sentimentality. Love is dangerous;
If we care for one another, we deny ourselves for their sake, even if this means we sometimes get hurt. It is worth the risk because the only other alternative, as Pope St. John Paul II argues again and again, is to treat every other person as an object. The cost of not daring to love is to miss the point of our existence entirely. It is to see a field of roses, objects that are nice enough but fairly common. Snap a picture and move on. Stop and linger, though, and the hidden meaning unfolds. Each rose is unique through the sacrificial love it is given. This meaning spills over into the entirety of the world. If we see with the heart, enchantment follows in all that we encounter
After taming the fox, the Little Prince realizes that his rose is unique, because she is his rose, and he cares for her. He has looked beyond the notion of a rose being just an object.
The Rose

6. What Makes Something/Someone Special or Unique?
A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
We shape and bring order to creation: a rock pile becomes beautiful, a drawing of a hat reveals that it is actually a boa constrictor with an elephant inside, and even the most harsh, forbidding climes reveal their hidden glory. The desert is a deadly place, arid and inhospitable, and yet even the desert holds a secret,
“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well…”

7. The Desert
An oft used metaphor for our own lives here on earth is that we inhabit a desert to be traveled.
Our experience is often confusion, and longing for something more. Meaning. Meaning through love, reflection, God, science, etc. We struggle to survive here.
Life is a desert, but it is beautiful. So is each and every person and thing under the sun. Somewhere out there is hidden a wellspring of life and it makes all things new.
“People have forgotten this truth,” the fox said. “But you mustn’t forget it.”
The Little Prince knows the secret. He knows that out there in the midst of the desert is a well. In that well is all the water they need. To him, the desert is not about the harsh realities of survival or what the eye can see. He doesn’t fixate on the relentless sun and the endless expanse—he sees the hidden well. The desert is a place of beauty because somewhere, somewhere hidden amongst the piles of sand there is a spring, and this hidden water in turn endows beauty and life and love to the weary ship-wrecked travelers.

8. Little Prince Deep Exploration Symbolically
What is the Meaning of Love
What is love? Romantic? Conditional? Is love compassion?
What is the Meaning of Life
Is it self-serving? Is it to help other people? Is it to love?
What is the Meaning of Philosophy?
Is to live without thinking about why we do or do not do things? Is it to follow someone else’s prescription for our self? Is to know why we know what we know? Is it to think? Is to just go with the flow and let it be? Is it to change?

9. The Little Prince’s Understanding of Love
What is the message for the narrator and ultimately, the reader.
How does this relate to the understanding of love?
Where in the book does it show that?
What is it?
The Little Prince’s Understanding of Love

10. The Little Prince’s Understanding of Life
What is it?
Where in the book does it show that?
How does this relate to the understanding of life?
What is the message for the narrator and ultimately, the reader.

11. The Little Prince’s Understanding of Philosophy
What is philosophy and wat is the little prince’s philosophy, or the fox, or even the snake?
Philosophy is the values, beliefs, attitude, thinking, way that guide’s one’s way life.
Where in the book does it show that?
How does this relate to the understanding of philosophy?
What is the message for the narrator and ultimately, the reader.

12. What Do you Take Away From this Book?

13. AND NOW. . .