Summary: Chapter XXI
. . . One sees clearly only with the
heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes. . . . It’s the
time that you spent on your rose that makes your rose so important.
. . . You become responsible for what you’ve tamed. You’re responsible
for your rose. . . .”
See Important Quotations Explained
As the little prince cries in the grass, a fox appears.
The prince asks the fox to play with him because he is so unhappy.
The fox replies that first the prince needs to tame him. The prince
does not understand the word tame, and the fox explains that it
means “to establish ties.” The fox says that at the moment, he and
the prince mean nothing to each other. However, if the little prince
tames the fox, they will need each other, and each will become unique
and special to the other. The little prince says he thinks he has
been tamed by a rose, and he lets slip that he is from another planet.
At first, this fact excites the fox, but he loses interest when
it turns out that the little prince’s planet has no chickens.
The fox explains that his life never changes. He hunts
chickens, and people hunt him. He says that if the prince tames
him, he will have footsteps to look forward to rather than run from.
The prince’s golden hair will make the fox’s view of the grain fields
come alive because the golden wheat will remind him of his friend.
The little prince is apprehensive at first. He says he
does not have much time and that he is looking for friends. The
fox says that if the prince wants a friend, he will have to tame
the fox. The prince asks how such a thing is done, and the fox coquettishly
takes him through the ritual. He explains that rites and rituals
are important because they allow certain moments to stand out from
all the others.
The prince tames the fox, but when the time comes for
the prince to go, the fox says he will weep. When the prince explains
that it’s the fox’s fault for insisting they become friends, the
fox says that he knows and that it has all been worthwhile because
he can now appreciate the wheat fields. The fox tells the little
prince to visit the rose garden again so he can see why his rose
is so special. The fox says he will reveal a secret when the little
prince returns to say good-bye.
At the garden, the little prince realizes that, even
though his rose is not a unique type of flower, she is unique to
him because he has cared for her and loved her. He tells the roses
that his rose is like the fox. He has tamed her and cared for her,
and now in his eyes she is the only rose. The prince then returns
to say good-bye to the fox. The fox tells him a threefold secret:
that only the heart can see clearly because the eyes miss what is
important; that the time the prince has spent on his rose is what
makes his rose so important; and that a person is forever responsible
for what he has tamed.
Summary: Chapter XXII
The little prince continues his journey and meets a railway
switchman (a worker who changes trains from one track to another).
As the trains roar by, the switchman explains that the trains shuttle people
from one location to another. The prince asks the switchman if people
are moving because they are unhappy, and the switchman explains
that people are always unhappy with wherever they are. The prince
asks if the people are chasing something, and the switchman replies
that the people aren’t chasing anything at all. He adds that only
the children press their faces against the train windows and watch
the landscape as it rushes by. The prince remarks that “[o]nly the
children know what they’re looking for,” and he says that children
can make a rag doll so important that when it’s taken from them,
they cry. The children, the switchman replies, are the lucky ones.
Summary: Chapter XXIII
The little prince then meets a salesclerk who is selling
pills invented to quench thirst. The merchant explains that taking
the pills means a person never has to drink anything, which can
save as many as fifty-three minutes a day. The prince replies that
if he had an extra fifty-three minutes, he would spend them by walking
very slowly toward a cold fountain.
Analysis: Chapters XXI–XXIII
The episode with the fox requires a note on Saint-Exupéry’s
use of the verb “tame.” In English, this word connotes domestication
and subservience. But the French have two verbs that mean “to tame.” One,
“domestiquer,” does, in fact, mean to make a wild animal subservient
and submissive. The Little Prince, however, uses
the verb “apprivoiser,” which implies a more reciprocal and loving
connection. The distinction between these two words is important,
since the original French word does not have the connotations of
mastery and domination that unfortunately accompany the English
translation.
The fox’s disclosure of his secret neatly sums up a moral
that runs through the novel: that which is secret is also what is
most important. Beginning with the narrator’s insistence that the
hidden image in Drawing Number One is the most important one, the
significance of secrecy is hinted at throughout The Little
Prince, but the fox’s words make it explicit. In 1939,
Saint-Exupéry wrote, “Don’t you understand that somewhere along
the way we have gone astray? . . . we lack something essential,
which we find it difficult to describe. We feel less human; somewhere
we have lost our mysterious prerogatives.” This “something essential,”
and these “mysterious prerogatives” are the invisible secrets that
the fox urges the prince to value.
The fox’s lessons must be learned rather than taught,
and when the fox reveals his secret, he really only confirms what
the prince has already learned for himself in his explorations.
The little prince’s journey allows him to explore himself as well
as the world around him, but the fox shows that even the hardiest
of explorers need validation. The fox is a mentor figure who points
out the important things the prince has learned and helps him clear
his thoughts. When the fox explains what it means to be tamed, the
prince realizes that he has already been tamed by his rose, even
though he didn’t know that the process had a name. The fox urges
the prince to revisit the rose garden, but the prince learns the
second part of the fox’s secret—that the time he has devoted to
his rose is what makes her unique—on his own.
After stressing in Chapter XXI that devoting time to
one another is what creates the special bonds between different
beings, The Little Prince offers two examples of
time poorly spent, where technology speeds people along at the expense
of things that have genuine value. The trains race by at lightning
speed, but only the children are able to appreciate what is worthwhile
about the trip. The switchman points out that all their moving does
not make the grown-ups any happier. The salesclerk with his water
pills also emphasizes time-saving, telling the prince that his pills
can save people up to fifty-three minutes a day. The little prince’s
retort that these extra minutes would best be put to use walking
slowly toward a cool fountain undermines the purpose of the salesman’s
thirst-quenching product.
