The Little Prince is the surreal story of a pilot who crashes in the desert and meets a boy from another planet. I love the book because it is simple, encasing themes of love and death within the form of a fairytale-like narrative.
- New historicism: Since the Little Prince was written during world war II, I could claim that the text is escapist, meant to contrast with the atrocities of war. Alternatively, I could analyze the men that the prince meets and examine how they might represent personality traits of world leaders during the war.
- Ecocriticism: I could make an argument about the delicate balance between man and nature, and the way that each is always trying to subdue/conquer the other (examples: the baobab trees, extinct volcanoes, ownership of stars). Alternative: focus on scene, compare the stark desert to the loneliness of the other planets.>
- Psychoanalytical: Based on Freudian psychology, I could discuss how the entire story is shaped by the pilot's childhood experiences described in the first chapter. The prince's function is to allow the pilot to uncover everything that his adulthood has caused him to repress.
- Biographical: Saint Exupery was a pilot as well as a writer. It would be interesting to view The Little Prince as a sort of imaginative autobiography, possibly reflecting the way that he viewed death.
I love the ecocritical approach! You could definitely go further into that and analyze the love that The Little Prince has for the rose, or the fox. Does the friendship that exists there suggest that there could be something good or beautiful about man's relationship with nature?
ReplyDeleteI've never thought about New Historicism as an approach to this book. You could contrast the seeming innocence of the Little Prince with the often hidden agendas of those he comes in contact with, like many people during the war.
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