Water represents spiritual nourishment and the joy that we can take in everyday moments. Water begins as a seemingly ordinary resource that we take for granted in our lives, but in the desert, it becomes a rarity. The pilot and the little prince grow very thirsty by the end of the book, and they abandon their storytelling to search for water, walking beneath the desert stars. When they finally find a well in the middle of the desert, they drink the water as if it were a "present," something that has become more special for the walking and the waiting that they have had to endure to find it. Additionally, when the little prince meets a merchant who sells a pill that quenches thirst, thereby saving fifty-three minutes everyday, the little prince says that he would use those fifty-three minutes to walk toward a spring of fresh water—suggesting that there is no replacement for the ordinary joy of journeying towards water to take a cool drink.
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Water Symbol Timeline in The Little Prince
The timeline below shows where the symbol Water appears in The Little Prince. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 23
...had fifty-three extra minutes, he would use it to walk to a spring of fresh water.
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Chapter 25
...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...
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Despite the sweetness of the water and the happiness he feels in drinking it, the pilot nevertheless feels a sense of...
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