The impression of reading “The Little Prince”
When I was in the high school, my teacher had introduced this book, The Little Prince, to us. But at that time, I thought it was the fairy tale and I had no interest in reading it. After I went to the college, I knew more things about this book. This book written by the French author, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, is very famous in the world and it has been translated into more than 160 languages. Many grown-ups like this book very much. They say this book is written for grown-ups which can make them think of some precious experiences in their childhood. After reading this book, I feel it is really good and worth reading. The story is about “I” who is the narrator of the story make the acquaintance of the little prince, a lonely and sad child from another planet named Asteroid B612. He leaves the planet because he has some quarrel with a rose. Then, he visits the neighbor planets and meets with a king, a conceited man, a drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter and a geographer. He thinks these people are too strange and he doesn’t like them. At last, he travels on earth and meets with a fox. The fox helps him learn love and responsibility. Finally, the little prince decides to go back to his planet to take care of his friend, the rose. At the beginning of the book, it satirizes that the grown-ups lose their imagination. They don’t waste time on extra work. “Then I wouldn’t talk about boa constrictors or jungles or stars. I would put myself on his level and talk about bridge and golf and politics and neckties. And my grown-up was glad to know such a reasonable person.” The narrator feels lonely because the people around him can’t understand what he says. What he can do is to adapt to the grown-up’s world and say what the grown-up likes. In daily life, people now lose their imagination and care more about the reality. They work so hard for money, right and profit that they forget what they really are and what they really want. They don’t stop to enjoy their lives and think what their true values are. I like the little prince’s attitude toward world. He loves his planet very much. He rakes out his active volcanoes and pulls up the baobabs regularly to protect his planet. These things are all small, but it is quite happy and warm when he does these, I think. The little prince is like an angle, full of love, peace, pure and beauty. We all had these in our childhood. When we were children, we played and made friends with the animals. When we were children, we smiled with the grass, flowers and trees. When we were children, we thought the stars were nictitating in the sky. But when we grow up, we forget these things and care about what we think are important such as
money, study and job. We treat the world as an adult and become a busy people. We can’t feel happy when we plant a tree. We can’t feel happy when we smell the flower. We can’t feel happy when we play with the water and the clay. We lose ourselves and the happiness. As we all know, we can’t always be in the childhood, but we can have the childishness. With the childishness, the life we have will be more happy and free.
What impresses me most is what the fox tells the little prince. “Anything essential is invisible to the eyes. It’s the time you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important. You become responsible forever for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible for your rose.” The fox helps the little prince know that the rose in his planet is unique because it is his rose and tamed by him. He should be responsible for it. For the rose, the little prince is also the unique. They are friends and they need each other. That makes me think about the friendship we have. When we make friends, the first thing we should do is to make relationship with them sincerely. Then, we should spend much time knowing and caring each other. When we become friends, it is forever. We love and need each other. We should be responsible for our friendship and treasure it.
When you read the book, you will feel peace and purify. The book is deserved to be read for several times. At each time you read, you will have a new idea of your life.