The little prince was created in 1942, published in 1943, when it was during the most critical moment of the Second World War。 France was defeated in 1940, with the beginning of the war in Europe, Saint-Exupéry was drafted the army and witnessed the crushing defeat of French Air Force。 He wandered for a long time and during the two years in the United States, his communication between his mother almost completely block。 He bore these lonely hard days。 He also missed her country, his hometown and his families。 He considered his life over and over again in those hard days and finally wrote this novel which based on his experience。

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was seen to be a tartar but actually he has a sensitive heart and melancholy soft personality。 When author created this novel ,he has already over the age of 40, after several ups and downs during life, he began to grow into maturity。 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry finish this fairy tale in only 3 months, but it has profound background of creation, which is the accumulation of the author’s several years or even decades of life experience and the accumulation of emotion。 It is not only a simple fairy tale for children , but also the crystallization of philosophy and thinking, it is full of the sentiment of life。 The profundity of this book is achieved with breathtaking lightness , this book contains a strong symbolic meaning, which is one of the the specific background of The little prince。

1。2 Literature Review

In the book, the little prince both has the wisdom of adults and the innocence of children。 From the perspective and the identity of children, The Little Prince tell us the beautiful memories and the happiness during the process of growing up for children which have been forgotten by the grown-ups。 The power of the heart and the sincere emotion which have been neglected by the adult world all unfold naturally through the adventure of the little prince。  The author exaggerate the performance of the little prince’s “get in” and “out off” from the children’s simple world to the adult world。  The book highlights the value of children’s inner world。文献综述

According to Xu Meilin’s The Fairy Tale in the Space: Essay on The Little Prince through the perspective of space concept(2014), based on the vast background in the space the author puts the children and adults in an opposite position and compares the difference between the living space and psychological space of children and adult。 On the one hand, the book reveals the survival status of children and the greedy nature of adults; on the other hand, it also reflects the simple nature of children。 Also, Shi Haiyan thinks in the book, Antoine arranges two opposite structure of children and adults。 In her The Return and Watch of Children’s Spiritual Home: The View on Children in The Little Prince(2002), Shi Haiyan holds the view that children and adults are two polarized aspects of human life, compared with adults, children have their own unique thoughts and culture。 

The child’s way of thinking and curiosity represented by the little prince in the novel, is not the object that the adult play with。 In real life, people should also escape from their own adult world, from the utilitarian, mechanical, rigid life。 They should be more concerned about the child world so that they can acquire their salvation。 Wang Yu puts forward the above views in her article A Fairy Tale for Adults——Initial Analysis on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince。 

In our real life, people consciously or unconsciously regard children as miniature adults, and evaluate children by the standards of adults。 The view of “miniature adults” on children has already has a long history。 Just as Zhang Chunzhen mentioned in her Children Are not “Miniature Adults”, due to the negative influence of our traditional culture, talent selection system and competitive social background, the view of “miniature adults” still exist。 The adults cannot find the special meaning and value of children。 In The Little Prince, Antoine criticized this view。 He works with an inexhaustible childlike innocence, his work based on children and beyond the gap between adults and children, it incisively and vividly shows the values, feelings and attitudes of children which make it become an understanding friend of children。 Antoine thinks that children is important, in his work he attach great importance to children’s status。 Just as my pedagogic creed (John Dewey, 1897) elaborates that the children are the flower, the sun, the angel。 John Dewey opposes to view children as miniature adults, he thinks that children has their independent identities in socirty with their own characteristics, interests, and needs。