The Little Prince
- we are introduced to the narrator, a pilot, and his ideas about grown-ups
Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called
True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a
boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the
drawing.
In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without
chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through
the six months that they need for digestion."
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some
work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing
Number One. It looked like this:
I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing
frightened them.
But they answered: "Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?"
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor
digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it,
I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the
grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My
Drawing Number Two looked like this:
The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings
of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself
instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why, at the
age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter.
I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing
Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is
tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I have
flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography
has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona.
If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.
In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great
many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived
a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And
that hasn't much improved my opinion of them.
Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the
experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I
would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But,
whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:
"That is a hat."
Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval
forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him
about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be
greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.
Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called
True Stories from Nature, about the primeval forest. It was a picture of a
boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the
drawing.
In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without
chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through
the six months that they need for digestion."
I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some
work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing
Number One. It looked like this:
I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing
frightened them.
But they answered: "Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?"
My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor
digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it,
I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the
grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My
Drawing Number Two looked like this:
The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings
of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself
instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar. That is why, at the
age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter.
I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing
Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is
tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I have
flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography
has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona.
If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.
In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great
many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived
a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And
that hasn't much improved my opinion of them.
Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the
experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I
would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But,
whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:
"That is a hat."
Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval
forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him
about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be
greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.
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