The Theme of Innocence applied in

Antonine de Saint-Exupéry’s “Little Prince”

and William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience”

Although quite different in style and approach, “The Little Prince” by Antonine de Saint-

Exupéry and “Songs of Innocence and Experience” by William Blake have a common major

theme, that is, the theme of innocence and coming-of-age. A comparative analysis on how the

two works present and approach this thought-provoking subject is both challenging and stirring,

as the two differ in various aspects, starting from the period of publication and ending with the

form and literary devices employed.

Antonine de Saint-Exupéry’s “Little Prince” is a novella published in 1943, a time that

places it in the category of modern literature, but which also means two centuries after William

Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience”, published in 1794.1 The story begins with the

narrative voice introducing the theme by pondering upon the strange nature of people, who, as a

part of a society governed by pragmatic principles, often tend to lose their imagination and joie

de vivre and, to focus more numbers and possessions. However, the protagonist of the story is the

little prince, who in his journey around the Universe, has decided to visit Earth. The narrator,

who is a pilot, remembers that after a plane accident was forced to land in the desert where he

first made the acquaintance of the little prince. This is also the moment when the contrast

between the two is set: the innocence of the little prince contrasting with the maturity of the

narrator, who is always worried about his engine and ‘’maters of consequence”(Ch. 7). As the

prince tells his story and describes the people he has met on other planets, we see that our

narrator is nothing like those. He may have been shaped and constrained by society and

adulthood to forget about his imagination and creativity, yet he did not lose them. Spending

almost a week in the desert with the prince, the narrator rediscovers his child spirit – his

innocence and his imagination same as the prince finds his way to maturity after having

experienced the world and seen its people.

1Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. „The Little Prince“. Web. 31 Jan 2015 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/344180/The-Little-Prince >

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. „Songs of Innocence and Experience“. Web. 31 Jan 2015 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/554468/Songs-of-Innocence-and-of-Experience>

If ‘’The Little Prince’’ is a homogenous story which illustrates the evolution of a

character, Blake’s collection of poems illustrate the poet’s change of vision; the emblematic

poems and themes that give an optimistic and joyful insight of life in ‘’Songs of Innocence’’

reappear in ‘’Songs of Experience’’ in a darkened vision of a speaker who has seen how human

nature degrades in time. Right from the “Introduction” we are offered contrastive images of ‘’the

Bard’’ and its work – starting by ‘Piping songs of pleasant glee’, ‘songs of happy chear’ in

‘’Songs of Innocence ‘’ the artist/poet acquires wisdom in ‘’Songs of Experience’’ with the

mission of ‘(...) Calling the lapsed Soul(...)’ – that is, the attempt to reawaken the childlike spirit

in every man who has been overwhelmed by ‘’maters of consequence’’ (Ch.7) ‘’The Little

Prince”). And this is exactly the effect the little prince has on the narrator. All optimism, purity

and incorrupt buoyancy are distorted by experience, which translates as social injustice, poverty,

misery and mischievousness. In ‘’Holy Thursday’’ (“Song of Innocence”) the image of the

children in church changes along with the speaker – they are no longer only with the eyes but

rather with the mind; the speaker’s mature mind can see beyond their temporary joy and beauty -

it can see the misery that envelopes them. ‘’their innocent faces clean’’, ‘’wands as white as

snow’’, ‘’these[children] flowers of London town!’’ ‘’the aged men, guardians of the poor’’ are

images which oppose ‘’Babes reduced to misery,/Fed with cold and usurious hand?’’,

‘’trembling cry’’ ‘’It is a land of poverty!’’ ‘’And their sun does never shine./ (..)And their ways

are filled with thorns/It is eternal winter there.’’ (‘’Holy Thursday”, “Songs of Experience”) The

idea of looking beyond the surface, using more than the eyes appears also in ‘’The Little Prince’’

when the wise Fox tells the prince that the essence of things, of people lies beneath the obvious:

‘’ It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.’’ (Ch.

21) – an idea which the prince proves to have acknowledged and understood when he looks back

with regret at the way he treated his beloved rose: ‘’I ought to have judged by deeds and not by

words.’’ (Ch. 8)

Another important element emphasized as essential to the human being is love; both

Exupéry and Blake view it as a primordial complex experience in one’s life and choose to

represent it through the symbol of the rose. Inexperienced as he is at the beginning, the prince

cannot fully grasp and handle the love the rose feels for him. He cannot see her essence, he

cannot love beyond her beauty: ‘’I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her

poor little stratagems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love

her..’’ (Ch.8) However, Blake presents a many-sided image of love: divine love as it is described

in “The Shepherd” (“Songs of Innocence”): ‘’He is watchful while they are in peace,/ For they

know when their Shepherd is nigh.’’ or both maternal and divine love is illustrated in ‘’A Cradle

Song’’, where a speaker is impersonated by a mother watching over her child: ‘’Sweet sleep,

Angel mild,/ Hover o’ver my happy child’’. The poem also alludes to the Biblical image of Jesus

Christ in Virgin Mary’s arms implying that the peace and serenity on the baby’s face is a result of

angelic protection. Nevertheless, the perspective changes again in ‘’Songs of Experience’’, the

erotic love here is emphasized, not only as sublime and beautiful but also ‘’dark’’ and ‘’secret’’

(e.g. “The Sick Rose”) or selfish and painful when we lose the ones we love ‘’Love seeketh only

self to please,/To bind another to Its delight:/ Joys in another’s loss of ease,/ And builds a Hell in

Heavens despite.’’ (“The Clod & the Pebble)

Another element which strongly underlies Blake’s collection of poems is divinity. In

poems like ‘’The Chimney Sweeper’’ and ‘’The Little Black Boy’’ in ‘’Songs of Innocence’’

divinity appears as a means of comfort for the children in pain; however, Morris Eaves argues

that the voice which emphasizes the importance and power of God may be highly ironic - ‘’very

Blakean way between contrary perspectives of harsh critique and Christian consolation.’’ (Eaves,

p.5) Ironic or not the poems in ‘’Songs of Innocence’’ echo strong praises to divinity, which may

be interpreted as a source of hope and happiness – the human being’s spiritual energy. As

expected this perspective changes in ‘’Songs of Experience’’ where the nature of God is

questioned ( e.g. ‘’The Tyger’’ : ‘’(...) Did he smile his work to see/ Did he who made the Lamb

made thee?’’) The image of the ‘’tyger’’ opposes that of the lamb’s in that tigers in Blake’s time

were viewed as ‘’prodigiously and relentlessly bloodthirsty.” (Gourlay, 258) The poet inquires

into the intended meaning of creating both, good and bad, innocent and corrupted. In ‘’The

Angel’’ (“Songs of Experience”) it is clearly underlined how in time, overwhelmed by the

hardships of life people lose their faith in the existence and power of a supernatural entity, which

is physically unable to soothe their pain: ‘’Soon my Angel came again;/ I was arm’d, he came in

vain:/ For the time of youth was fled/ And grey hairs were on my head.’’ (The Angel)

Apparently, for Blake youth is the time of innocence, hope and belief, once the human being

starts to experience, to live and to grow the notion of divinity becomes of no use for his daily

struggles.

In Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience” there are various symbols and stresses

on the idea of God which are completely absent from Antonine de Saint-Exupéry’s ‘’Little

Prince’’. Being rather a modern writing, ‘’The Little Prince’’ focuses more on man and his nature

without relating it to any supreme being, implying that it is man who must try to keep his

innocence and imagination as means of fighting against the hardships and dullness of life. This is

the wisdom we need an era of technology and materialism – the ability to look for beauty and

happiness beyond misery without losing hope.

In conclusion, both works illustrate beautifully by different literary devices the theme of

innocence and the coming-of-age period as a time important for the human being who struggles a

lifetime to find a sense of purpose.

Works Cited:

Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and of Experience. n.p. n.d. Project Gutenberg. Web. 31 Jan 2015 < http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1934/1934-h/1934-h.htm >

de Saint-Exupéry, Antoine. The Little Prince n.p. n.d. @srogers.com. Web. 31 Jan 2015 <http://srogers.com/books/little_prince/contents.asp>

Eaves, Morris. ‘’ Introduction: to paradise the hard way.’’ The Cambridge Companion to William Blake. Ed. Morris Eaves. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 1-16

Gourlay, Alexander. ‘’A glossary of terms, names, and concepts in Blake” The Cambridge Companion to William Blake. Ed. Morris Eaves. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 272-287

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. „The Little Prince“. Web. 31 Jan 2015 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/344180/The-Little-Prince >

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. „Songs of Innocence and Experience“. Web. 31 Jan 2015 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/554468/Songs-of-Innocence-and-of-Experience>