The Little Prince discussion

Does the little guy die?

I like to think of it this way --

The whole story is a bit magical, no? He comes from a planet, and tells stories of how he had visited other planets (which are allegories) and speaks with a fox... why only at the end would you think -- he gets bitten by a snake, he dies. Why not continue with the story that he returns to his planet? Why is it THAT part of the book that suddenly has to be realistic?

How can he die? He is either an imagined character, a metaphor, or it's a magical story...

i think that part, like most bits of the story is open for interpretation.

I interpreted it to mean he was able to return to his planet. That is what the snake said to him, if I remember correctly.

I also think he died... but who knows?!

I think it's up to interpretation. The first time I read it, I just assumed that it really meant he was going back to his planet, but you could interpret it to mean that he died. I don't like to think of it that way though- as others have mentioned, it's a magical story so anything is possible.

Read this in French just last year, and no. He got bit by the snake and had to go back to his planet to survive and take care of his flower.

Kelsey wrote: "Read this in French just last year, and no. He got bit by the snake and had to go back to his planet to survive and take care of his flower."

I read it in English and I interpreted it the same way.

That's what my teacher told us. I'm pretty sure he didn't die though.

The narrator said his body disappeared, and that´s how he knows he made it to his planet

☯Emily wrote: "Kelsey wrote: "Read this in French just last year, and no. He got bit by the snake and had to go back to his planet to survive and take care of his flower."

I read it in English and I interpreted ..."

Hi Emily! Same here. Sad enough he went back to his planet!

☆ Ｃａｒｏｌ ☆ wrote: "☯Emily wrote: "Kelsey wrote: "Read this in French just last year, and no. He got bit by the snake and had to go back to his planet to survive and take care of his flower."

I read it in English an..."

My, my, you are everywhere!

Heh! This is the first time I've seen anyone I know on one of these threads!

But we can't deny the ending is a peculiar sad twist for someone who's just "returning to his own planet". I think the author wanted the reader to perceive such ambiguity and let us believe what we we felt was truer while giving us no certainty about it.

That depends on your view, whether you read it using your "child" eyes or "grownup" eyes. But, as the book says, what the eyes see is not the essential part.

In my opinion, what's more important at the end is that the narrator gets something to love. Just as the Prince had its flower to see when watching at the stars, he now has the Prince, and that's essential.

He did not die, he went back to his planet, and i believe he went back for his flower.

He died. Period.
Traditionally the snake is always a deceitful beast in fairytales. It lied to him. All the wishing in the world won't change that.

I want to believe he returned to his planet. Like Lenny said: the whole book is magical, traveling from one planet to another, talking to flowers and animals, so why should the ending be literal (snake bite - death). It can also be magical.

Even so, the ending makes me incredibly sad and I've cried more than once. My husband doesn't even want to talk about the ending because it also breaks his heart. I guess we're too emotional, ha! The problem is what Freddie says about snakes: in literature they're deceitful... :-(

Incidentally, a few months ago we saw the musical The Little Prince (very good) and there was this tiny little boy (maybe 5 or 6) sitting next to me. At the end of the play I heard sniffling and he had his face buried in a huge handkerchief. As we left the theater, I looked around and most of the kids were crying. I overhead parents consoling them and asking if they had liked the story (yes, they had), and telling them that if they cried it meant the story had some meaning for them. That was nice.

I thought of it this way.
As you guys have just mentioned that the whole story of Little Prince seems magical and imaginary with all those allegories such as, the fox, the rose, and the adults Little Prince encounters in all those different stars.
And I've interpreted the Little Prince himself as an allegory, too.
I thought the Little Prince is a resemblance of the narrator's youth, his childhood. Since the beginning of the story starts by, "All grown ups were children first (But few of them remember it)."
Therefore, I thought the allegories were something that the narrator (Saint-Exupery?) experienced in the real world as he became an adult and lived as an adult. However, he meets the Little Prince (who is actually the narrator's youth).
And back to the ending, it SEEMS like the Little Prince dies from a snake bite while Little Prince says to the narrator that the narrator will find the Little Prince (his youth) among the stars, which might resemble "remembering" and "not forgetting" those thoughts that the Narrator once had as a child.
Lastly, the mention about Little Prince returning to the planet will mean that every time the narrator recalls his youth, the Little Prince(=memories of the youth) will always be with him.

The memory of the youth "remained motionless for an instant, didn't cry out," but "fell gently, the way a tree falls."

As a psychology major, I've learned that memories never die but it only fades away and gets forgotten. And the description above feels like it is fading away, not dying. Whether our memories are short-term or long-term it is ALWAYS in our minds, we just don't remember them.

This story is definitely not for children, but for adults who were once children.

i do not know and i never will...........
it makes me cry that he never shall return ..................

The Little Prince is the Narrator's inner child speaking to him whilst he is stuck in the desert. Of course the teller of the story begs readers to always be on the lookout for the Little Prince, the inner child that appeared whilst the aviator was in the desert, stranded, afraid of death and facing possible death if he didn't get his plane sorted. If he didn't go back to where it all began, his being told by grown ups that there was 'no money' in doing what he wanted to do, ART. Don't be sheep who follow the money!

This might be a little bit different from your normal interpretation, but I'd like to throw in what I think the story might draw from.

Imagine you are the narrator, but instead of crashing your plane you crash your car and have to spend some time in the hospital unsure if you will survive or not. You have suddenly been confronted with death and you are stuck in this hospital room to think about your imminent doom. A little boy visits you. You ask him why he's in the hospital and he explains that he is from his room, room 612.

You get the impression that he is from a different floor (floor 6) which presumably takes in a different type of patient. He seems fine, maybe he is visiting a family member? Maybe he has a terminal illness that doesn't affect his outward appearance? You are unsure at the time.

During his visit, he senses that you are distraught over the thought of your looming death. The little boy decides to comfort you by telling you stories about some of the other patients he has visited on your floor. He met a prudish man in room 325. He met a lonely man who only wished people cared in room 326. He met an alcoholic in room 327. And so on. The very curious little boy finds them strange... maybe for having such 'adult concerns'... something that (at this point) you are coming to realize that this boy will never have.

You soon find out that you will be discharged. You have found that you are going to survive your injuries, and you place gratitude in-part with the little boy who kept you company and gave you hope and a new perspective.

You also learn that the little boy is indeed dying of a terminal disease. The doctors have informed him and his family that he can take 'the easy way out'. You are confused as to why the little boy would ever agree to that... to which the boy explains that it is his time and that he has come to terms with his death. He is glad to have met you and to have seen you through a hard time. He hopes that you will remember him, even after death. He then insists that you aren't there for the euthanizing, as it will be hard to watch. You decide to see him off for his last moments. The death was calm... quiet. You know that he is in a better place. Hopefully a happier place. You find comfort in the memories and stories he told you. You'll always remember the place you met him, good or bad... You'll look forward to meeting him again.

Fin.


I know, I know, it's a grim comparison and I'm probably completely off base. But I thought the whole story fit so well as an allegory for this so I can't get my head away from these comparisons. So my answer to your question would be that yes he did indeed die. But it was by his own choice, and his own acceptance of the situation as it was. That his only way "home" was through the snake. It is hopefully comforting to know that those who are gone are remembered by the stories they tell, the friends they meet, the life they lived.

I base my opinion on the following quote: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. Just like we probably never saw the elephant in the snake when our superficial "grown-up" eyes first saw drawing #1, we must remember that just because we cannot see something does not mean that it is not there. I think the greatest proof that the Little Prince returns to his planet is that we never do see him again. Only a grown up would need to see him to know that he was alive. The final drawing strengthens this idea.
St. Exupery used drawings as motifs throughout the entire book to show us the world according to the pilot and the Little Prince. The bare desert landscape is much like the snake that swallowed an elephant; we cannot see the elephant, but it is there. And we will never see the Prince again, but he is home and he is forever in the pilot's heart and memories.

I believe he died. The little prince may have gone back to his planet as a ghost though.

I believe the author has worked very hard to create a perfectly ambiguous ending. This thread discussion is therefore infinite...

I never read the book but the animated film that was released not too long ago answers the question as to what happened to the little Prince.

I think for him to die would be an insult to the whole book and what it means to be a child. The snake bites him because the Prince believes it will help him to get back to his planet. If this element of the world according to the Little Prince is false, then what makes any of it meaningful? If he does not get back to his planet, as he believed he would, then there was no elephant in the snake. Then the rose was just an ordinary rose, not at all influenced by the Prince's love for it. The whole novel is based on the Prince's views of the world, and how believing in sometime makes it so. If he dies, he is nothing but a foolish child who was given a harsh slap in the face of the truths of reality. I desperately hope this was not the case.

Maybe the point is that the little prince was naive and has his own childish view on the world. He wasn't slapped by reality or anything coz he lived in his own reality, in his head... I'm not saying he was silly, it's just that he had his own beliefs... We as readers have the option to see the reality of mortality and how everything comes to its end... We can choose to be naive instead though, we can choose to believe little prince got to his planet somehow and lived happily ever after. Anyway, if he died instantly then he's never realized his view of the world was foolish. But the thing is everybody dies eventually, hence even little prince. Also childhood ends.

Dan wrote: "I thought of it this way.
As you guys have just mentioned that the whole story of Little Prince seems magical and imaginary with all those allegories such as, the fox, the rose, and the adults Litt..."

Thank god, I am not the only one who thinks like that. Now I am sure about it; The Little Prince is author's childhood.

We could call it death, but that is how he goes back to his planet.

When I first read it, I thought the little Prince was the narrators son that died when he was Young. But now, after Reading this thread I`m not so sure...

The Little Prince is the author's Higher-Self.
The story is about reaching Enlightenment, that is connecting with the "god" within you.

People know Higher-Self by many names: God, Christ, Allah, Brahma, Buddha, Guardian Angel, Divine Consciousness, Ha Shem, Light, Hu, and etc.

Therefore as a mind/soul/consciousnesses, he did not die. The prince manifested to him as a human being then beamed back up to his "home" planet. He used the human "shell" as an astronaut uses spacecraft to go to a planet. When the astronaut gets out of the spacecraft he is not dead. The spacecraft sits there as an empty shell.

In order to understand the underlying secret meaning of this story you Must know esoterism.

I think the only ones qualified to answer this question definitively are the children; or adults who didn't see a hat, but a boa constrictor digesting an elephant.

Most Ardently wrote: "Does the little guy die?"

I believe it is a metaphor for dying "returning to whence you came from" or "going home" etc....But the Prince even states that he will not really die but just will abandon his body, or if you like, enters another form of existence.

Perhaps that what we all do this, realize that life has become empty without those we care about and decide to take the chance of seeing them again by plunging into the unknown.

Indeed the book has left you to decide what happens. Here are my versions and thoughts:

The saddist child in me ends the story with the little prince actually dying. Then the irony. The snake eats him thus removing the body. So the pilots picture comes to life. The little prince is now inside the snake.

The adult in me says all this was made up and in the pilots head. Since he was isolated he had a lot of time to think. Thus, creating a false story. Only the crash in the desert, finding the well and water, and returning home was real. He got really creative with his metaphors though.

Finally, .... my reality thoughts. Antoine's wife Consuelo wrote a book claiming she was the inspiration for the rose in the story. In the story, the whole reason he leaves is because of the rose, and it's the same reason he wants to return. To me he used the book ending to express: Should I go back to my wife (physically)? Can I come to my wife (emotionally)? So it's up to you. Should he go back to his wife?

Note: Just like the little prince disappeared (book was published in 1943) a year later Antoine disappears (1944). The irony. In case your wondering, they didn't find his body only his bracelet with his and Consuelo's name on it. So... is he dead or alive in real life?

Just another thought I had now... maybe the Little Prince did not have his own body when he lived on his planet. Imagine that he only existed as a spirit. Perhaps he found a dying child and asked if he could share his body so as to explore earth. In exchange, he offers the child all the memories of his own childhood, which he also shares with the pilot. Keep in mind with Drawing #1 the idea that something is more than what it appears to be... just like there was an elephant inside the snake, there *may* be a second child within the prince's body... he is just borrowing his body so as to visit Earth.

Therefore, the boy whose body the Prince is sharing is dying... but dying a slow and painful death. The Prince at the end is ready to go back to his planet, but he realizes he cannot free himself of the boy's body while the boy lives. He gives the boy a quick and more merciful death by allowing the snake to bite him. When this happens, the Prince in his natural spirit form returns to his planet and the ill child dies without suffering.

But also note to Alexandra: I really liked what you said about the snake eating the Prince recalls the imagery of Drawing #1 at the beginning of the story. Brilliant!!

NO not the prince only the old guy

Freddie wrote: "He died. Period.
Traditionally the snake is always a deceitful beast in fairytales. It lied to him. All the wishing in the world won't change that."

The snake didn't lie. He merely presented death in an appealing way. The little prince said " I know what you mean" when the snake made the proposition to him .He was fully aware of the fact that he was going to die.He even went as far as telling the narrator not to go there, because it will not be a nice sight.He'll see him "going" with pain on his face. To me, it's pretty clear that he dies. If the whole thing wasn't meant to be seen this way,they wouldn't have gone as far as describing how deadly that snake was in the beginning. "Going back to his rose" could have even meant that he knew the rose couldn't have survived one year without his help and that he was going to join her "on the other side".
It's just how I understood it though.

Totally a Pan's Labyrinth-type scenario.

The little prince died. Although the book showed a happy ending it was actually the complete opposite. Here are my supporting facts why the prince died
Fact 1: He mentioned that baobabs can pierce his planet/asteroid into pieces if he didn't pull them quickly. but he also mentioned that he stayed in the Earth for a year because he died at his anniversary of arrival . Still, he said the pilot he should go back to his engine to return home because he will go home too but go home where?
Fact 2: If you re-read the book again what is the first thing you will see? Isn't it a boa engulfing a creature? I believe it was a warning on how the prince would die . The reason the pilot didn't found a body is because the boa engulfed the little prince whole.
Fact 3: The little prince stated that he will go back to his flower after what he realized but how? Let's remove the fact that the planet was destroyed but the flower will still not survive after being alone for a year without care. The flower knew that she would perish so she just told the prince not to put the glass globe and not to kill the caterpillars that would eat her because it would be of no use.

I think the question isn't whether he dies – the simple fact that we have to wonder suggests that he does – but rather what death will do to him. The rest of the book tells the reader that there is no reason to believe death would be an ending for the Little Prince. He's just going someplace else. As far as we know, he likes to travel in peculiar ways and physically dying to get home isn't any stranger than getting into an alien spacecraft.

Jeffrey wrote: "I think the only ones qualified to answer this question definitively are the children; or adults who didn't see a hat, but a boa constrictor digesting an elephant."

Yes, I love that answer! :-)

Esperanca wrote: "I think the question isn't whether he dies – the simple fact that we have to wonder suggests that he does – but rather what death will do to him. The rest of the book tells the reader that there is..."

I think that is a great answer, too! Love it!!

Personally, I think he just goes away. But it´s confusing. First he says "This body is too heavy", and then he says "It will seem like I´m dead, but it won´t be true". What I have been told is that the Little Prince is a personification of the narrator´s inner child: That simple honest, person who can have fun. Just like the Little Prince, we don´t know waht happens to our inner child when we grow up

Sofía wrote: "Personally, I think he just goes away. But it´s confusing. First he says "This body is too heavy", and then he says "It will seem like I´m dead, but it won´t be true". What I have been told is that..."

Ooh... I like that!

Sofía wrote: "Personally, I think he just goes away. But it´s confusing. First he says "This body is too heavy", and then he says "It will seem like I´m dead, but it won´t be true". What I have been told is that..."
I'm currently the snake in the play rendition of the Little Prince, which means that a lot of people don't like me, so I'd understand if you disagree with me here. What I know so far, is that the entire thing is basically a metaphor, with each character symbolizing a different thing: the prince being something akin to youth and childhood. What my director has stressed to me many many times during character analysis, is that I am death. From what I interpret, is that the prince actually does die. Though he might be there in spirit among the stars, he is no longer living. So to answer the question, the Little Prince does indeed die, as unmagical and sad as it seems, that's just the way that life is.

Alexis wrote: "Sofía wrote: "Personally, I think he just goes away. But it´s confusing. First he says "This body is too heavy", and then he says "It will seem like I´m dead, but it won´t be true". What I have bee..."

Maybe then there is some even bigger meaning about what it means for him to die? What if the rose had died as well because she *had* been eaten by the sheep, and the prince knew that death was the only way to get back to her? In which case, love is stronger than death. He may need to die to get back to her, but what matters is that his love, not his death, brings him back to her.

lenny wrote: "I like to think of it this way --

The whole story is a bit magical, no? He comes from a planet, and tells stories of how he had visited other planets (which are allegories) and speaks with a fox...."

I wish I could like this comment:'(

Irina wrote: "Freddie wrote: "He died. Period.
Traditionally the snake is always a deceitful beast in fairytales. It lied to him. All the wishing in the world won't change that."

The snake didn't lie. He merely..."

That was the best explanation I've read so far! I completely agree with you.

Most Ardently wrote: "Does the little guy die?"

I don't think he ever existed. I think the little prince was an optical illusion of the narrator. When the narrator was finally far away from civilization and its distractions his mind had a chance to catch up with him and morn his lost innocence.
Notice how the prince had to leave just as the plane was fixed, this was the ending of the narrators journey of self discovery.