Human nature

Criticism of the world

In his novella The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry paints a very pessimistic picture of humanity when he describes the population of the Earth: "111 kings, [...] 7000 geographers, 900,000 businessmen, 7,500,000 tipplers, 311,000,000 conceited men--that is to say, about 2,000,000,000 grown-ups." (58%). 

Especially with the portrayal of the little prince's visits to the planets (see the planet inhabitants), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry criticizes the views and the values of the different types of adults, such as power, vanity, or claims to wealth. They all live a lonely, illusory, and hopeless life.

There are many types of criticism of people in the novella. The main view is that adults do not think about the really important things; they are too interested in the material. Serious things, status and upscale leisure interests are important to them: "bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties" (2%). 

The writer also criticizes, among other things, the fact that adults judge the beauty of a house by its price and that they believe that the friendship of children is determined by the income of their parents. The constant dissatisfaction and the restlessness of people are also criticized. People buy useless pills to save time without knowing what they could do with them (see the inhabitants of the Earth).

Saint-Exupéry paints an ironical picture of the political world, and not only with the figure of the king on the asteroid 325. The case of the astronomer, who was only believed when he appeared dressed in Western clothes, is sarcastically described by Saint-Exupéry with the words: "Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should change to European costume." (12%). 

With this statement, he criticizes not only the fact that people judge others only by their clothes (see Ap...