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3.2.3 Freedom of Choice 5
4 Representations of Existentialism in The Little Prince 5
4.1 Three Basis Existential States of the Main Characters 6
4.1.1 Absurdity 6
4.1.2 Loneliness 7
4.1.3 Angst 8
4.2 The Significance of Existence 8
4.2.1 The Fox 9
4.2.2 The Rose 9
4.2.3 The Snake 10
4.3 The Choice of the Little Prince 10
4.3.1 The Little Prince’s Liberation 11
4.3.2 The Pilot’s Disappointment 11
5 Conclusion 12
An analysis of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince from the Perspective of Existentialism
1 Introduction
Along with the development of the times, children’s literature is still very popular among children. Most of them have been adapted for films frequently, such as Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and so on. Today, children’s literature occupies an important position in the field of literature and it also has a far-reaching impact on people’s childhood. Because children’s literature wants to bring out the beauty that exists in the world, so nearly all the fairy tales have happy endings. With the development of the children’s literature, there is no doubt that many authoritative people have analyzed fairy tales from various angles. Sometimes, fairy tales not only show the pure world but also show the loss of human beings. Therefore, this paper tries to use the knowledge of the existentialism to analyze the fairy story.
The Little Prince is one of the most famous French fairy stories, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Once The Little Prince was published in 1943, it caused a sensation in American. In 2012, The Little Prince has been adapted into a film. People of all ages have gone to the cinema to watch it. It is not only written for children, but also for adults. Today, many famous people have analyzed it from different aspects, for instance, evaluation theory, reception aesthetics, realism, existentialism. This paper tries to analyze it based on existentialism, although there already have been a few people who have analyzed The Little Prince from the perspective of existentialism. The purpose of the paper is to use the existentialism to analyze the characters and the conflict between the adults and children in The Little Prince.
2 Literature Review
The Little Prince is a fairy story written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It deserves the honor of a classic model of children literature in the world. As a classic work, it is still brilliant and full of charm after the long time screening and washing in history. Through The Little Prince, readers can see a puzzled Saint-Exupéry stand on the ruin of wars and religions. He feels very lonely. Therefore The Little Prince gradually drew the attention of scholars. They made lots of studies on this fairy story from different perspectives.
In 2009, Wang Xintong analyzed The Little Prince from the perspective of modernism. In Wang Xintong’s point of view, “the death of Antoine is in the conformity with the principle of the modernism. The thought of Antoine is similar as the modernism writer. ” As a 20th century novelist, Antoine is both an inheritor and an innovator. He experienced the two world wars. During the two world wars, although people lived in the civil society, at that times, the relationship between common people were distorted.