‘The Little Prince’ written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery conveys life lessons through the novella. Many of the lessons revolve around meeting characters. De Saint-Exupery cleverly interweaves these messages throughout the prince’s conversation with the pilot which include many encounters with characters who teach the little prince lessons about kindness, modesty, conceitedness, lying and narrow mindedness. The most prominent are the lessons of looking with the heart, ‘tame’ making connections with others and forgiveness and matters of consequence and lastly the importance of showing love and care for others.
De Saint-Exupery presents the prince’s meetings with many characters in order to demonstrate messages to his audience; one such meeting is with the fox. De Saint-Exupery utilises the meetings with characters in this way because it shows the broadening of the little prince’s experience and therefore his perspective. The fox was very helpful and taught the prince several lessons about friendship. The main one was demonstrated when the fox says to the little prince “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Therefore it is through the little prince’s meeting with the fox that the author demonstrates that our value of something or someone makes it unique. Similarly the author uses the little prince’s meeting with the rose to send a message about love and the importance of this in life.
The little prince’s experience with the rose was utilised by the author to show the importance of love. Once something is “tamed” you can find a way to forgive and will always have a special place in your heart just for it. The rose was a very big part of the novella and the author inferred many messages through the discussion of it. For example the rose says: “I have been silly, I ask your forgiveness. Try to be happy. . . ”. To the little Prince she is of great importance