Reflective essay on "The Little Prince"

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Abhishek Chhabria

Reflective essay on The Little Prince (English HL1)

Joseph Weizenbaum, a professor computer science at MIT, an institution where creativity and innovation is a need, once wrote and I quote,

"I think that children have a power to imagine that is almost magical when compared to the adult imagination, and this is something irrevocable that a child loses when he or she becomes bound by logic. We adults continue to have our children's power of imagination only in our dreams... Of course it's awfully necessary that children not run their entire lives on the basis of such thinking; they do need to learn how to think logically. But the world will soon teach that to them -and in overabundance. I think we should do everything we can to make it possible for children to hang onto the power to imagine in the almost magical sense for as long as possible."

A mere description of the same event by a grown-up and an adult is clearly distinguishable. Their comparison will suggest that the child will make it sound emotion filled, more imaginable to the listener and the adult will summarize and emphasize on the 'important' aspects. Also, the child's perception of the event will bring out certain 'invisible' aspects and will sound less stereo-type than the adult's view of the matter.

The author starts the book by expressing his discomfort about the absorption of a child's mind by logic as he grows in a social environment full of stereo-type grown-ups. He refers to the grown-ups as those who were unable to comprehend his illustration of a boa constrictor like he did and who discouraged him to waste his time in creative aspects. These grownups always emphasize on the importance of the education from educational institutions and on the study on conventional subjects. I admit that if I were shown the drawing '1' of the author and were expected to say "Hey, this is a boa constrictor swallowing an animal, I, myself, disagreed that it was anything more than a hat. As Mr. Weizenbaum puts it, children go on to learn logical aspects which suppresses the creativity in them. Soon after the comprehension of this fact within the first few pages of the book I realized that I was a victim too.
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The narrator goes on to meet the little prince one day at the Sahara desert, where he landed up because he had to crash land his plane. The little prince seems to represent the very creative, child-like aspects the narrator introduces us to. He seems to be full of wonder and open in terms of comprehension, in his interactions with all the characters of the book. The narrator discovers that the prince is from another planet, Asteroid 325, and he lives alone. This seems to represent the loneliness of a child in terms of having a companion who ...

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