The Educational and Moral Message in Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince Cover Image

The Educational and Moral Message in Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince
The Educational and Moral Message in Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s The Little Prince

Author(s): Mária Potočárová
Subject(s): Philosophy, Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies, Education, Foreign languages learning, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Theory of Literature
Published by: Uniwersytet Ignatianum w Krakowie
Keywords: The Little Prince; moral education; personalism; dialogic approach; educational relationship; educational interaction

Summary/Abstract: Stories help us to understand our own mental world and the soul of the child and its education. In stories we often find a moral message and the basis for the practical solutions to various educational problems. To understand the nature of the parable means also to find the key to open the spiritual dimension of our being. We deal just with a very small book, and allegorical story about the little prince from the planet B 612 in it, as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry described him, which carries an important message to a man at any age. The paper analyses the moral and educational message of the work The Little Prince as a description of the dramatic era in which the book was written. The universality of the message of this book (which can be possibly described also as a fairy tale for adults) bases in the fact that the message goes across every period, and every age of recipients in a various environments and conditions of life. It clearly speaks not only to kids who are being educated, but also to adults and teachers, regardless of whether they are simple or highly educated people. The Little Prince is a guide to the inner world of each human person. From a pedagogical point of view this work deals with the application of narrative as well as educative method, which are based on dialogic paradigm of philosophy and Christian humanism, especially personalism. The outline of the article develops the following analytical sequence: the background of the creation of the book, The Little Prince in us—a psychological reflection, the ideas in The Little Prince in relation to education, focusing on the moral formation of the child and the every human person.

  • Issue Year: 20/2017
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 57-70
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: English