From Childhood to Reality

From Childhood to Reality

All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it. The story “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry shows how grown-ups change in their lives. The Little Prince is a child who travels from the asteroid B-612 to the earth. Along the journey he discovers some planets where he learns how different are adults from him. Years ago I read this book and I remember that through the entire reading I identified myself and I think most of the children too.

When I was seven I used to explain my parents how I viewed the life and they didn’t catch it. For a little girl it’s natural to see the life as a game, where you have to worry about nothing except to be happy and being loved. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, they always need to have things explained, is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them, said the narrator.

In this book I can reflect the planet that child have in mind. For the Little Prince was the asteroid B-612 where you can’t let baobabs grow because of the damage they can cause, as destroy his planet. In my life, the baobabs where those insecurities and bad thoughts that didn’t let me, I needed to cut them over and over again so I could continue living in my planet.

The Little Prince mentions how much he loves to see the sunsets, he watched forty- three times one, and he added that when you’re sad you love to them. I remember the many sunsets I used to draw. Every weekend I used to go to the beach and see them, it was kind of nostalgic because I remembered all the difficulties I was facing as a child.

As the Little Prince, I faced someone who believed was a king, a conceited man, a tippler, a businessman, a street lamp and a lamplighter, and a geographer, all those characters in just one person, my father. As a king who gave me dumb orders like go to sleep early because I’m angry. A conceited man because he loved to hear good things, as you’re the best father in the world. A tippler because there were times where I felt in a deep dejection, as the tippler he was ashamed of continuing doing silly things like spending little time with his children. I met the businessman who didn’t have time because he had too much to do, who didn’t have time for loafing or for idle dreaming in his life. The streetlamp who worked for nothing in particular, sometimes he just worked because that was the way he was taught since he was a child. A geographer who only cared in my talks if they were interested things for him.

Through the story we can see how the Little Prince searches for company. In his journey he met a man who was patient to him, the one who cared about his rose, his sheep and him. The Little Prince also met a fox and became friends. The fox taught him about friendship, to give a sense to his life, to appreciate every single detail about the world, he taught him that what is essential is invisible to the eye. Those characters and more were in one person in my life, my mother.

I really love this book because it motivates me. The book reminds me the things I had passed through and it taught me to never forget being a child. The world of a child is different form an adult. A child will have problems to face, even with our loved ones, but there’s always someone who supports us, we always have something to learn and never forget.

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