Log 2

 

(I chose The Little Prince as the book for my log 2, because I thought we had to finish reading a book before the next class. I finished reading this book, and I am going to write something about this book. After completing this part of my log 2, I will find another book to read, and finish the rest parts of my log 2!)

I heard about The Little Prince many times before, but I had not read the whole story until last week. In this book, the story of The Little Prince was written in three languages, and they were traditional Chinese, English, and France. I read both traditional Chinese version and English version.

The Little Prince was about a little prince who lived on a very small planet where there were only three small volcanos and one little rose. The little prince liked his planet, and he would water the rose and clean the volcanos every morning. However, he wanted to have a true friend, so he decided to go to other planets to broaden his horizon, and find someone who can become his friend. He watered the rose and cleaned the volcanos the last time on the day he was leaving for other planets. After that, his journey of visiting seven different planets began.

The little prince met a lot of people and creatures when he was exploring those planets. He met a king who saw anyone as subjects, a conceited man who considered anyone to be admirers, a alcoholic who drank to forget shame, a businessman who knew nothing but addition of numbers, a lamplighter who lighted and put out the street lamp every single minute, and a geographer who knew knowledge about mountains and ocean. Most importantly, he met a fox which asked him to tame it, a snake which always spoke riddle, and a pilot, the author of this book.

I think the author was trying to convey some message from the little prince's journey. During the visiting of the first to the sixth planet, the little prince didn't find anyone whom he wanted to become friends with. He would always say "the grown-ups are certainly very strange" after visiting every planet. Those "grown-ups" were like boring adults whom the author didn't want to talk to. The king liked to give others orders and wanted to control everything. The conceited man could hear nothing but praise. The alcoholic drank to forget that he was ashamed of drinking. The businessman counted all the stars and wanted to own them. The lamplighter didn't change as time passing. The geographer only recorded information about ephemeral things like mountains and ocean. Boring adults want to control everything, lose themselves in praise, drink alcohol to forget things, want to possess everything, and hold knowledge that they think is right. I was inspired by every encounter during the process. I found the negative personalities of every person, and I would check if I were one of the "grown-ups" that the author and the little prince hated.

The seventh planet the little prince visited was the Earth, and he met the fox, the snake, and the pilot. The fox asked the little prince to tame it, which taught him that even things that share the same look or are totally the same, can be different when there is a special bond between them. I really liked the point the fox told the little prince. When I was reading this part, I thought about a lot of stuff that I treasure, and many people whom I love very much. Later on, the little prince met the snake. It always answered the little prince's questions with riddle, but it told him that it could help him when he wants to go back to his planet, which was a foreshadow of the little prince's leaving. Lastly, the little prince met the pilot, the author of this book. The little prince asked the pilot many questions, and shared his journey to the other six planets with the pilot, which made the pilot get to know what kind of person the little prince was. Then they traveled in the desert, and became friends with each other. At the end, the little prince helped the pilot found a well to get water, and went back to the place he landed, and left the pilot.

I almost cried at the end of the story. The journey taught me a lot of lessons, and reminded me not to be that kind of grown-ups. The meet with the pilot brought me through the process of building bonds with others, and again awakened my fear of saying goodbye. I think I am clearer about what kind of adult I want to be, and I will keep learning how to say goodbye in a good way.