The Little Prince: 1/4 The rose.
I just recently finished reading The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. This story is about a French aviator (the author of the book) who crashed his plane in the Sahara Desert. As he planned the appropriate amount of water to drink everyday to salvage the little bit he had left and how he was to fix his plane, he enountered a boy who called himself the little prince. The little prince, who lived on a small planet the size of a house, explained how he arrived on Earth to the aviator and what he discovered about grown-ups on his journey. In short, grown-ups don’t recognize what is truly important in their lives. I recommend this book to everyone and if you don’t like reading, see the movie it is equally moving.
“All grown-ups were once children…but only few of them remember it.” — Antoine de Saint Exupéry, The Little Prince
I created four designs based off of four characters in the book which I will share in a four part series. These four characters are the rose, the fox, the aviator and of course the little prince himself. I chose these characters not because they are some of the main characters but because they made the biggest impression on me.
The first design is based off of the rose. The rose grew on the little prince’s planet. From the moment she revealed all her pedals the little prince was hypnotized by her radiance and beauty. The rose asked everything of the little prince. He watered her, covered her with a glass case during the night and satisfied her every need.
Along with her noticeable elegance she became vain and naïve. She spoke of how her four thorns could fend off a fully grown tiger and talked of things with no importance constantly. The torment of her vanity affected the little prince and he became unhappy. He wanted to express the love he had for her but he didn’t understand it and therefore started to doubt the flower.
As I read the chapters about the flower I was amazed by how easily selfishness and self absorption can manipulate innocence. The flower took advantage of the love the little prince had for her and didn’t know that love could disappear until it was too late. I chose to dedicate one design to the flower because it is so common to take the things we have and the people in our lives for granted. I’m guilty of it. Everybody does it. I don’t know if it’s part of human nature or if our materialistic world has enforced that on us.
“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” — Antoine de Saint Exupéry, The Little Prince
