80 pages • 2 hours read
Antoine de Saint-ExupéryThe Little Prince
Fiction | Novella | Middle Grade | Published in 1943A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
When he was 6 years old, the narrator read a book about the jungle and was inspired to draw a picture based on a photo within it. He inserts the photo and the drawing into the text, explaining that both depict a boa constrictor swallowing its prey whole. However, when he showed his drawing to some adults and asked if they were frightened, they were confused, because they mistook the snake for a hat. He therefore drew a second picture, this time showing the elephant inside the snake, but "[t]he grown-ups advised [him] to put away [his] drawings of boa constrictors, outside or inside, and apply [him]self instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar" (2).
The narrator explains that this experience was so frustrating to him that he "abandoned, at the age of six, a magnificent career as an artist" (2). Eventually, he became a pilot instead, which at least allowed him to put his knowledge of geography to good use. However, his job has also brought him in contact with many "serious people" (2), and his opinion of grown-ups hasn't changed much over time. He explains that when he meets someone who strikes him as "at all enlightened," he produces the first drawing he drew of the boa constrictor to see if the person "really underst[ands] anything" (3). These people always see the snake as a hat, so the pilot is forced to talk about "bridge and golf and politics and neckties" as they expect a "reasonable person" (3)to do.
Chapter 2 Summary
The pilot leads a lonely life up until the moment (now six years ago) that he has to crash land in the Sahara Desert: his engine is not working, he only has enough water for eight days, and he has no one with him to help repair the plane. When he goes to sleep the first night, he hears "a funny little voice saying, 'Please…draw me a sheep…'" (3), and awakes. The voice repeats its request, and the pilot finds himself face-to-face with an "extraordinary little fellow" (4)whose appearance he has since tried to replicate in a drawing. The pilot warns his readers that his drawing is "much less attractive than [his] model" (4), since he never learned to draw properly on account of his early disappointment.
Strangely, the boy doesn't seem to be frightened, hungry, or thirsty, and when the pilot asks him why he's in the desert, the boy simply asks again for a sheep. The pilot does not feel he can resist such "an overpowering mystery" (4)but explains that he doesn't know how to draw. The child insists that this doesn't matter, so the pilot draws a boa constrictor from the outside, only for the boy to retort that he "[doesn't] want an elephant inside a boa constrictor" (6)but a sheep. The boy also objects to the pilot's next several attempts, which he says are either "sick […] too old […] [or] a ram" (6).
Finally, the narrator draws a box and tells the boy that the sheep is inside. The boy is delighted and says he hopes that the sheep won't need much grass, because he lives somewhere "very small" (7). The pilot reassures him that the sheep itself is small, and the boy remarks that it has fallen asleep. This, the narrator says, is "how [he] made the acquaintance of the little prince" (7).
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
Besides establishing the central role that drawings will play in The Little Prince, the pilot's opening anecdote about the boa constrictors introduces one of the story's key themes: the importance of imagination. As children, Saint-Exupéry suggests, all people have an innate curiosity and creativity, but this capacity typically dwindles as they age—largely in the name of practicality. As a result, the adults the pilot shows his drawings to are unable to appreciate its sense of enthusiasm and wonder even after the pilot explicitly shows them what it's meant to represent; instead, they suggest that he study something that will help him get a job one day. By contrast, the fact that the prince recognizes the drawing of the boa constrictor for what it is implies that he, like the pilot, sees beyond mundane reality to invisible hidden possibilities (like the elephant inside the boa constrictor). His later remark that the sheep is asleep underscores this, since all that is physically visible in the drawing is a crate.
Throughout the rest of the story, Saint-Exupéry will use this motif of sight and invisibility to explore both imagination and the question of what is fundamentally true or meaningful in life. These themes are closely related, in part because imagination offers a means of discovering what is actually worthwhile beneath all the rules and conventions of society. Since it eventually emerges that human connection is one of the fundamental truths (if not the fundamental truth) of existence, the pilot's isolation at the beginning of the story is particularly poignant. As the story progresses, Saint-Exupéry hints that modern life—work, consumerism, greed, etc.—have all but destroyed humans' ability to form deep and real relationships with one another. Because the prince has virtually no concept of these things, he is able to relate to the pilot on a more meaningful and profound level.
