Friendship

The search of the prince

Friendship represents the central theme in the novella The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. The pilot reports that he would have preferred to start his story like this: "Once upon a time there was a little prince who lived on a planet that was scarcely any bigger than himself, and who had need of a sheep ..." (14%).

Through the visits to the planets, the little prince is initially disappointed by the people he meets, who show no particular interest in him. When he lands on Earth, he is looking for friends, but he does not know exactly what friendship is yet.

To the snake, he complains about the loneliness in the desert. The snake says, however, that one is lonely also among humans . The snake is of the opinion that humans are not capable of building friendships.

Something similar is also suggested by the desert flower, which thinks that people lacked roots (cf. p. 86). The little prince does not give up and continues to try to find a friend. When, on a mountain, he mistakes his own echo for the people's answer, he is disappointed by their lack of imagination and longs for his rose (p....