Previous
Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Little Prince, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Relationships
The True and the Essential
Exploration vs. Narrowmindedness
Childhood vs. Adulthood
Innocence
Summary
Analysis
When the little prince sees the pilot's airplane, he asks what that object is. The pilot replies that it isn't an object—it flies and it's his airplane. The little prince asks whether he fell from the sky then, and when the pilot responds that he did, the little prince laughs and asks which planet he came from. Surprised and curious, the pilot prompts the little prince, asking whether he came from another planet; however, the little prince, as usual, avoids answering questions.
Both the pilot and the little prince discuss their backgrounds as literal explorers—paving the way for the figurative exploring they'll do as they continue to tell and listen to stories in the desert.
Themes
The little prince instead mentions that it is good that the pilot drew a box for his sheep—that way, the sheep will have a place to sleep at night. The pilot offers to draw him a string and a post to tie the sheep to, if the little prince behaves, and the little prince seems shocked by this idea. He asks why he would want to tie the sheep, and the narrator responds that the sheep might wander away otherwise. The little prince claims that this will not matter on his planet, since it is so small.
The narrator, who has not explored other planets like the little prince's, can be narrow-minded and make grownup assumptions at times. For example, he thinks that the little prince will like to tie up his sheep to make sure he can keep him, but the little prince, in his innocence, doesn't understand why he would restrain the sheep in such a way.
Themes
