Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Little Prince, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Relationships
The True and the Essential
Exploration vs. Narrowmindedness
Childhood vs. Adulthood
Innocence
Summary
Analysis
The well they find in the desert looks like a village well, but there is no village nearby. The pilot pulls up a bucket of water, tired but happy about his achievement. He gives the little prince a drink, realizing that the water is sweeter for their walk beneath the stars and for his effort acquiring it from the well.
The water is sweeter to the little prince and the pilot because they have explored together and formed attachments to one another.
Themes
Despite the sweetness of the water and the happiness he feels in drinking it, the pilot nevertheless feels a sense of grief. The little prince asks him to draw the muzzle for his sheep, and the pilot does so reluctantly, sensing that the little prince has plans he has not revealed yet to the pilot. The little prince says that the one-year anniversary of his descent to Earth is the next day and that he landed very near where they are. The pilot feels a little frightened, but the little prince tells him to go fix his engine and return the following evening.
As the fox taught the little prince, one risks weeping a little after being tamed. The pilot is sad because he has formed a bond with the little prince, but now he senses the little prince's imminent departure.
Themes
