Motifs

The mountains and the echo

The mountains and the echoes are important motifs in the novella The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. After the little prince has not discovered any people in the desert, he climbs the mountains to look for them. He thinks that from the mountains he can see the entire planet and has no idea of the size of the Earth. On his home planet there are only his three volcanoes, which reach up to his knees.

The mountains stand for the new discoveries that the little prince makes on Earth. The echo, which he does not recognize as such but thinks is the response of the people, makes him realize for the first time that he misses his rose, with whom he could always speak: "On my planet I had a flower; she always was the fir...