little prince- chapter 1

In this chapter the author beautifully explores the psychology of a young boy. I chose this chapter because I could empathise with the boy. We see the clash between the perception of the child and adults. Hidden behind the playfulness of the tone is a deep message. We see how talent is shunned down. Our society has certain stereotypes which one is expected to conform to. Innovation is regarded as ‘madness’ and ignorance as ‘bliss’.
The picture of the boa has great significance. The boa gulps down his prey without chewing it and then hibernates to digest it. This arouses great curiosity in the mind of the child. On a symbolic level the boa could represent the process of colonisation. Let’s take the process of Indian colonisation by the British. The British entered India as traders in the form of the East India Company. Through their trade practices they engulfed many regions of the country. However they put up a deceitful front. The prey, the Indians were completely oblivious of this until they were engulfed. Also the entire process was gradual and hushed. Slowly the company devoured the lower stratus of the society. The higher classes were still ignorant. It was only after they took over the entire country did they begin devouring it. Thus the process was slow and secretive but it did finely devour it to every last morsel.
The child is naïve and innocent but in this chapter he is displayed as the true seeker of knowledge. The adults have biases as to what is right and what is wrong. They do not want to look out of the box. The child tries to look beyond but he is shunned down. We don’t realise that these adults have a huge impact on the child’s life. They are the source of secondary knowledge for the child. The child is expected to learn from them. If they institutions limit a child’s scope rather then encouraging it then the child will be deprived for life. as in this book the child says that he decided to give up drawing after receiving no appreciation. We al require appreciation and encouragement. It gives us joy and pride in our work. However discouragement can really lower spirits.
Our society is like a closed system, anyone who is looks beyond it is pilled down. This has been the case for times immemorial. Pythagoras and Aristotle were considered as ‘over reachers’ and ‘dreamers’ when they proposed that the earth was round. Only a few inrellectual lot believed them and the others shunned them down. It has actually been known that the Earth was round since the time of the ancient Greeks. It was Pythagoras who first proposed that the Earth was round sometime around 500 B.C. As I recall, he based his idea on the fact that he showed the Moon must be round by observing the shape of the terminator (the line between the part of the Moon in light and the part of the Moon in the dark) as it moved through its orbital cycle. Pythagoras reasoned that if the Moon was round, then the Earth must be round as well. Around 350 BC, the great Aristotle declared that the Earth was a sphere (based on observations he made about which constellations you could see in the sky as you travelled further and further away from the equator) and during the next hundred years or so, Aristarchus and Eratosthenes actually measured the size of the Earth! However these reasons were given a deaf ear by the society. I guess it is our preconceived notions that hinder our progress. If we had revered and acknowledged the work of these men at the right time human civilisation would be even more developed.
Parents or guardians shunning down children can be the most demoralising thing ever. Eklavya’s story from Indian mythology. He was not blue blooded. He had a deep desire to learn archery from the royal teacher. He was rebuked and looked down upon by the saint. The saint rejected him and told him that he would never learn archery as it is the game of the royalty. Even though Eklavya was very rejected he still revered the teacher and learnt archery al by himself. He mastered the art single handedly without any guidance. However the saint could not reconcile with the fact that he was better then his favoured disciple Arjun (a descendent of the royal family). In order to maintain the supremacy of his disciple he asked Eklavya to give up this thumb. Thus we see that how the saint misjudged Eklavya’s potential. The stereotype that only the royal blood can learn the art of archery prevented him to appreciate talent. At the end of it all the world lost a brilliant archer.
Thus we need to look beyond our pre conceived notions. We need to appreciate and encourage. Two words of appreciation can go a long way. I hope that readers recognise the underlying pleas of the author. Under all the smiles and affability, humour and innocence lie the grey areas of human existence that we conveniently chose to ignore.