The Little Prince begins and ends in the desert, and this is no coincidence. The desert is the work's great symbol for existential anguish and loneliness: the stripped-down place where, without distractions or artifice, the soul finally finds itself before itself. Reading the book in this light is to discover, beneath the delicate tale, one of the most existentialist texts in literature.
The desert as crisis and revelation
When the aviator crashes in the Sahara, he finds neither bread nor salvation: he finds emptiness. But it is precisely there, in the mineral silence, that the boy's request arises and the inner journey begins. In the spiritual and literary tradition, the desert is always the space of crisis and revelation, of the dehydrated soul that needs to touch the depths of aridity before finding meaning again.
Upon arriving on Earth, the Little Prince himself first encounters solitude: there are no crowds or welcome, there is the echo of his own voice. And yet, it is in this stripped-down place that he will have his most decisive encounters. The work suggests that loneliness is not the end of the path, but its condition: only those who cross the void can recognize the essential when it appears.
Kierkegaard: the despair of not being oneself
To understand this anguish, the class calls on the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, considered the embryo of existentialism. He wrote that the greatest despair is not being oneself. Most people live trying to be what others expect, what society determines, what the mirror returns. It is a camouflaged despair, socially accepted and even encouraged, but despair nonetheless.
Several characters in the book embody this condition: the vain man who only exists in reflection, the firebrand who lost his own time. Everyone lives in silent anguish, that of someone who has moved away from themselves without realizing it.
Camus and the detour to the meeting
There are still echoes of Albert Camus. In the universe of the absurd, man walks indifferently, numb by the banality of the world, living in the desert without seeking meaning or finding it. But in The Little Prince there is a decisive deviation: in Saint-Exupéry's desert, the absurd does not lead to indifference, it leads to encounter. The boy appears, makes a request that breaks logic, and reason gives way to imagination and affection.
This is the work's response to existential anguish: not denying it, but moving through it towards the other. The loneliness of the desert can only be cured in bonding. To follow this philosophical reading in detail, watch the full class.
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See recommended readingsFrequently asked questions
How does the Little Prince deal with loneliness?
Loneliness appears in the desert where the aviator falls and in the void that the prince himself finds when he arrives on Earth. But, in the work, emptiness does not lead to indifference, it leads to encounter and revelation.
What is the book's relationship with Kierkegaard?
The Danish philosopher wrote that the greatest despair is not being oneself. Several characters in the work experience this camouflaged despair, and Kierkegaard's thought is the embryo of the existentialism that runs through the book.
What does Camus have to do with The Little Prince?
In Camus, the desert of the absurd leads to indifference. In Little Prince there is a deviation: in the desert of Saint-Exupéry, the absurd does not lead to indifference, it leads to an encounter with the other.
Go deeper: The Little Prince: summary and analysis · Alienation in Pequeno Príncipe · What is the meaning of life
Source class (YouTube): O Pequeno Príncipe, de Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (NousCast)