The Literature Book

239

The rise of the Nazis saw the emergence of writer-refugees whose

homelands became hostile environments due to politics (Marxist

Brecht left for Denmark), anti-Semitism (Jews Roth and Zweig went

to Paris and London, respectively), and war (Saint-Exupéry fled

occupation, while wartime internee Celan chose postwar exile).

See also: Mother Courage and Her Children 244–45 ■ Poppy and Memory 258 ■

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch 289

BREAKING WITH TRADITION

lost in an adult world. But as a

character, his alienness is infused

with a moral philosophy that

celebrates dissimilarity and

questions the world of adults which

has led to war—and, in Saint-

Exupéry’s case, exile from home.

Like a child’s painful maturation

into the unknowable realm of

adulthood, the state of exile is a

process of losing and relearning

one’s place in the world.

Tolerating difference

This strangeness of the adult world

coupled with the novel’s celebration

of the little prince’s alienness, has

also been read as a political critique.

The baobab trees, which infest the

home planet of the little prince, have

been interpreted as a reference to

the contemporary “sickness” of

Nazism and its equally grasping

nature as it moved across Europe

destroying all in its path, including

Saint-Exupéry’s beloved France.

The narrator warns about “some

terrible seeds on the little prince’s

planet. ... And a baobab, if you

tackle it too late ... will bore right

through a planet with its roots.” In

contrast, the novel positions the

humanist philosophy of rationality,

compassion, and respect for

difference against this spreading

disaster. The alien boy advises us

all that “eyes are blind. One must

look with the heart.”

The Little Prince is a timeless

yet timely exploration of the value

of human life. Like other writers in

exile, Saint-Exupéry explores loss

and change against a backdrop

of upheaval and alienation, which

fosters kindness toward others and

a toleration of difference. ■

Antoine de

Saint-Exupéry

Born to a French aristocratic

family in 1900, Antoine de

Saint-Exupéry had a strict

upbringing in a château near

Lyon. During his national

service, he became an aviator.

Before World War II, he

was a commercial pilot who

pioneered airmail routes in

Europe, South America, and

Africa. When war broke out,

he joined the French Air Force

and flew reconnaissance

missions until 1940. During

these years he produced many

well-known works, but The

Little Prince was not written

until he and his wife, Consuelo

Suncin, fled heartbroken into

exile after France’s defeat and

its armistice with Germany.

Vilified by his government

and depressed by his stormy

marriage, Saint-Exupéry flew

his last flight in 1944, over

the Mediterranean, where it

is believed he was shot down.

His posthumous reputation

has recovered him as one of

France’s literary heroes.

Other key works

1926 The Aviator

1931 Night Flight

1944 Letter to a Hostage

Bertolt Brecht

Berlin to island of Funen, Denmark

Joseph Roth

Berlin to Paris

Paul Celan

Czernowitz (now

Chernivtsy) to Paris

Stefan Zweig

Vienna to London

Saint-Exupéry

Lyon to New York

US_238-239_LittlePrince.indd 239 08/10/2015 13:08