What are the themes in The Little Prince?Antoine Saint-Exupery's Le Petit Prince

Major Themes

In The Little Prince,
Saint-Exupéry explains the importance of seeing the whole truth in order to
find beauty. He believes that visible things are only shells that hint at the real worth
hidden inside. He points out that man has not learned to look beneath the surface, or
perhaps, has forgotten how to do so. Because adults never look inside, they will never
know themselves or others.

All his life, Saint-Exupéry
thought that grown-ups cared mostly about inconsequential matters, such as golf and
neckties. When they talked about important matters, they always became dull and boring.
They seemed afraid to open up their hearts to the real issues of life; instead, they
chose to function on a surface level.

In the book, the fox
teaches that one can see only what is important in life by looking with the heart.
Because of this lesson, Saint-Exupéry leaves the desert as a different person. He has
accepted the Little Prince's thought that “'the stars are beautiful because of a flower
that cannot be seen.” In essence, the fox’s lesson is about how to love, a most
important lesson for everybody to learn. The fox points out that it is the time that one
“wastes” on someone or something that makes it important. The fox also tells the readers
that love can overcome existentialism: “One only knows the things that one tames.... Men
buy things already made in the stores. But as there are no stores where friends can be
bought, men no 
longer have friends.” A human must earn a friendship, not buy
it.

Finally, Saint-Exupéry explains how all joy and
pleasure must be earned, not given or received. As an example, he shows the joy that the
Little Prince and the pilot feel when they taste the water from the well. Its sweetness
comes from their journey under the stars and the work of the pilot’s arms making the
pulley sing. In the end, the Little Prince again experiences a new joy. Leaving his
“shell” behind, he has gone to the most beautiful place he can imagine -- his star,
which is his love; he has returned to his own little
heaven.

Minor Themes

Saint-Exupéry scorns man’s obsession with
the wrong things, such as wealth, power, and technology; he uses the King, the
Businessman, and the Lamplighter to highlight this theme. The king puts a great deal of
importance into being obeyed, even though he orders only what would happen anyway. The
businessman takes great pride in owning all the stars, but he is too busy counting them
to gain any pleasure from their beauty. The Little Prince tries to teach him the
pointlessness of his “property.” The Little Prince also scorns the Lamplighter’s
fascination with science and technology. He is so caught up in the importance of
lighting his lamp, that he misses what is important in
life.

The need to have faith is another minor theme in the
book. The Little Prince arrives on the Earth during a spiritually troubled phase and
stays until he has resolved his confusions. During his stay, he teaches the narrator the
importance of having faith and belief. Many critics have called the Little Prince a
Christ-figure, for he is described as being free of sin. He also believes in a life
after death. At the end of the book, he returns to his star, his
heaven.