Author: [France] Saint Dexhuberg
The Little Prince was written by the famous French writer Saint-Exupé ry. Since 1943 was published in new york, it has been translated into 42 languages and reprinted many times. "The Little Prince" has been adapted into plays and movies for many times, and it has been staged continuously. The Little Prince has been selected as a textbook by many western countries and has become a must-read book for teenagers. People can't help asking, what is the reason for the little prince phenomenon?
I think the French writer Andre Molova's comment on Saint Exupé ry may be a pertinent answer to the above question: "The little prince also contains a whole set of philosophical thoughts in his poetic sadness." "This children's book for adults contains symbolic meanings everywhere. These symbols look clear and obscure, so they are particularly beautiful. "
This is a plain fairy tale, with no bizarre plot or earth-shattering feat. The story unfolds with a simple narrative. The charm of this exquisite work "The Little Prince" lies in its rich connotation and extensive symbolic meaning, and in its symbolic meaning, whether it is bright or dark.
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Like a French literary critic? Edward pointed out: "Symbol is an art form, which not only satisfies our desire to describe reality, but also satisfies our desire to transcend the boundaries of reality. It gives us concrete things and gives us abstract things. " With the help of symbolism, Saint Exupery created a poetic artistic conception in The Little Prince, which not only criticized the evils of the times, but also "showed the essence of life through endless experience", trying to point out a way for the "ideal realm" of human civilization.
1. The symbols used in The Little Prince are rooted in reality. Saint-Exupery looks at life from a philosopher's perspective, transcends the boundaries of time and space, and studies long-term accumulated psychological experience with universal significance. This fairy tale is a concentrated expression of the author's philosophy of life refined and sublimated from life. As Camus pointed out when talking about myths: "Like the greatest artists, Melville built his symbols on concrete, not on dream materials. The creation of myth has the characteristics of genius, just because he puts myth in a solid reality, not an imaginary cloud. " ⑤ Saint Exupery put fairy tales in rich real life and let symbols take root in reality.
Saint-Exupery is a doer first, an outstanding pilot, and then a writer. His works are not only a description of his personal experience, but also a summary of his life experience. He risked his life, overcame the unbearable difficulties of ordinary people and soared among the clouds above the Andes; He flew across the Atlantic and Sahara deserts, back and forth between Europe and America. He was dying in the desert, struggling and finally being rescued; At present, in order to save the country and the people, regardless of his disabled body, he continued to fight tenaciously with the fascist planes in the sky until he died for his country. Saint-Exhaus Su Pei is "a pioneer in opening the air route, adding luster to the wings of France with his perseverance." "Every word in his pen makes a clear sound." His fairy tales and their symbols are rooted in reality. However, some are straightforward, some are implicit and some are profound.
The first kind of symbols in the text is simple and clear. Such as: a lonely king obsessed with power (a symbol of political power), an insatiable philistine who blindly pursues money (a symbol of financial power), a pedantic geographer who is divorced from reality (a symbol of spiritual power), a fan of narcissism and vanity, an old-school lamplighter who lacks independent thinking, a dedicated switchman and a blind railway passenger. They come from real life, have outstanding personality, and are more symbolic and universal after being refined by the author.
The second symbol needs careful consideration and repeated thinking to understand its meaning. These symbols are all based on life and are well known to us. What do snakes, foxes, flowers, echoes, water and wells symbolize? What's the moral? If you stay on the surface, you will be puzzled; Think about being like Levi. As Strauss said, if these symbols are positioned on the "diachronic horizontal combination axis" and "synchronic vertical combination axis", then we can understand the true meaning of these symbols: "snake" is a god of death, with great power, and can guess all the answers; Fox is the purest and cleverest animal. The author reveals the secret of communication through his mouth: in order to make friends, we must go through "domestication", establish contact and establish a sense of responsibility, and we must "look at everything with our heart"; "Flowers" are symbols of love and happiness. She lives on the earth, weaving connections. She believes that man is a rootless creature with only false freedom, just a plaything of wind and fate. She is delicate and willful, needs the comfort of friendship and the watering of love; Echo reflects the loneliness and fear of living on the earth. The earth is as empty as a desert, without the warmth and true feelings of the world, which makes people feel lost. The meaning of "water and well" is profound: "water" can quench thirst and is the source of life for pilots, but for the little prince, "water" is only his spiritual food. After a long journey in the desert, they finally found and "awakened" a well. In the desert, the pilot accepted the "baptism" of this pure and magical water, which "comforted his heart like a gift", thus purifying his mind.
The third kind of symbol has profound significance. We must examine the fairy tale from the height of the author's time and cultural background, and then dig deeper to understand its profound meaning in the fairy tale text.
1) The little prince is a magical figure, with superhuman ability, and can wander among the stars at will. Blonde robe, no nationality, no home. He lives outside human society and is not bound by any prejudice. He is the legendary image of a carefree and innocent child. He is the embodiment of an angel who always keeps his virginity, the source of wisdom and truth, and the symbol of the author's ideal.
In the unpolluted and pure inner world of the little prince, there is no distinction between rich and poor, no temptation of money, no place for hatred and greed. He is full of curiosity and persistent desire for the outside world. After he met the pilot in the desert, he kept asking questions about friendship, money, "the responsibility of love" and values until he "asked the truth". Because of this, The Little Prince is more likely to resonate with children and adults who used to be children all over the world, be accepted by them, be recognized by them, and have universal symbolic and aesthetic significance.
2) The communication difficulty or incomprehension between the little prince and the pilot is not imagination, which is the objective contradiction revealed by the author. Isn't this "difficult to communicate" a symbol of incompatibility between the inner world of children and the inner world of adults?
The complexity of the world and the cruelty of reality made the little prince's question unsatisfied, so he felt depressed and even cried sadly. Emotional fragility is of course the reason for his sadness, but more importantly, his persistence in truth conflicts, collides and even is irreconcilable with the absurd world. The values of the little prince are very different from those of the adults. The children's spiritual world represented by the little prince is pure, full of true feelings and warmth. The relationship between people, people and things, things and things is direct and natural. They are not polluted by modern civilization and get rid of the shackles of "adult logic". As for the spiritual world of adults, it is full of "rules and regulations" and traces of modern civilization pollution. Adults succumb to external pressure and the temptation of money, and some even seek profit and lose their true feelings. There is no common values and no bridge between these two completely different spiritual worlds. How can we communicate and understand each other? Please look at the following example:
If you say to adults, "I see a beautiful pink brick house with hydrangeas on the windows and flocks of pigeons on the roof …", they can never imagine how beautiful this house is. You must say to them, "I see a house worth 100 thousand francs", and then they will shout, "What a beautiful house!"
This example shows that children have no concept of market exchange value at all, while adults think that the exchange value of goods is the first. In other words, in children's spiritual world, the language symbol system has only "poetic value"; But in the spiritual world of adults, the language symbol system is dominated by "practical function". Therefore, when the little prince talks to the pilot with the signifier with absolute poetic value (or symbolic meaning) in the language symbol system, he denies all the direct and conventional values in the latter's language, while the latter who loses childlike innocence can only answer the little prince's questions with the signifier with practical value in the language symbol system. This really doesn't matter! How to establish contact, exchange and communication between two diametrically opposite language symbol systems belonging to two special interlocutors? This is the crux of the communication between the little prince and the pilot when they first met.
The little prince belongs to the children's world, and he can use "non-adult" language without any constraints and constraints. Although the little prince accepted the signifiers in the "adult world" language system, he casually used them to express what he wanted to express, that is, to express what he had given new meaning. In addition, children's world has its own right and wrong standards and unique evaluation system. This is how children judge objective things. The world is different from ordinary people. The example that "python swallows elephant" does not mean "hat" is the best illustration. Adults regard the picture of "Python Swallowing Elephant" painted by the pilot as a "hat". The story told by the pilot at the beginning of the fairy tale seems ridiculous to adults, but it has become an examination question for the author of Childhood to test whether adults have "correct understanding ability". In fact, the logic of the story evolved according to the "non-adult" language of the children's world. It is impossible for adults to understand the unique signifier meaning of children's world with reference to established laws. Only adults who have childlike innocence or restore childlike innocence can understand, communicate and communicate with the little prince. After the pilot found his lost childlike innocence and observed everything attentively, he really established contact with the little prince (of course, he has gone through the stage of "domestication"). He shouldered a "sense of responsibility" and then issued an appeal that "love is a responsibility". Let mankind "love more" and hate and kill less, which is the theme of Saint Exupé ry's masterpiece The Little Prince. At the same time, in the works completed in this war, the author condemned the evil acts of fascism by calling for "human love".
3) "Desert" is a sparsely populated pure land in the world and a symbol of paradise on earth that is not polluted by the world. This kind of environment is most suitable for people to reflect and daydream, thus completing the blending and transformation of reality and imagination. The atmosphere of life that both the pilot and the little prince agree with includes: sky, stars, silence and night. The "desert" is like the sky, vast and far away from the world. This is the best place and holy place to preach and listen to the word. The temptation of lies, the poison of money and the value of seeking profit have no place here. Then, what is the root of the tragic, untold sufferings and all kinds of deformed figures in modern society? The answer is simple: its root lies in that modern civilization has destroyed people's pure hearts, made people want more than they can fill, alienated people from each other and forgotten friendship, unity and sincerity. In the magical journey of The Little Prince, the pilot who returned to the desert, an adult who didn't forget that he was still a child, finally discovered its essence and its deeper symbolic significance. Phantoms that sometimes appear in the desert symbolize a beautiful world and future without conflicts, wars and contradictions, full of friendship and human love everywhere. But whether the phantom can be turned into reality is still an unknown problem for the author. But the author always believes that the desert is "the most beautiful place in the world".
4) The Death of the Little Prince symbolizes the integration of a simple mind and a holy desert, breaking away from complicated and absurd interpersonal relationships and starting a new life in a bright future. At the same time, the "death of the little prince" also symbolizes that thousands of days like Mozart on earth were destroyed and died by the "modern civilization" full of copper odor. At first, the little prince was tempted by the outside world and began a magical journey of seeking truth. After various tests, he found absurdity and filth everywhere, and dark and twisted hearts everywhere. To this end, he was discouraged and passed away in a sad, nostalgic, peaceful and quiet atmosphere. For him, staying on the earth has completely lost its meaning. Because the beautiful things in the human world are destroyed all the time; True feelings and friendship are destroyed all the time; Purity and nobility are always defiled. The death of the little prince means his categorical rejection of the polluted and destroyed human society.
To sum up, The Little Prince contains many all-round and multi-level symbols. They are both relatively independent and interrelated. A straightforward symbol, natural and vivid, has the meaning of hitting the nail on the head; Implicit symbol, thought-provoking, thought-provoking; A profound symbol, near and far, abstruse and difficult to understand. Due to historical reasons and ideological restrictions, it is not convenient for the author to express his thoughts directly, and his opinions have to be expressed through symbols with profound meanings.
Second, how is the symbolic meaning of The Little Prince expressed?
First of all, the symbolic meaning and symbolic function of the little prince is completed through the fairy tale structure model. The author inherits the conventional narrative paradigm in Greek and Roman cultural traditions, and takes fairy tales as the carrier to let "heroes travel far and seek miracles". The theme is to show the beginning, end and turning point of life experience by symbolic means with fairy tales, which are super-historical and super-cultural, and to convey the essence and significance of life experience to others. Levi? Strauss compared myth to the score of a symphony, which has both horizontal melody and vertical harmony. The same is true of fairy tales, whose meaning, or symbolic meaning, is built on a crisscross network of relationships.
The narrative structure of The Little Prince is as follows:
Heroes travel far from home: they have traveled to seven planets.
Pursuit of Miracles: Heroes go through trials and temptations, fail to achieve their goals, and move on.
Find the answer: I finally found the answer until I came to earth.
Ending: the hero's "death".
From the perspective of fairy tale rules, this paper investigates the symbolic and effective mechanism of the above narrative structure model. As far as the general framework is concerned, the above model is similar to the plop in Morphology of Fairy Tales: the protagonist leaves-seeks miracles-goes through hardships-ends; But this is different: the little prince here is not pursuing a "miracle" or a magical instrument, but a moral and philosophical secret-pursuing the true meaning of life in the spirit of "asking what's next". Here, there are no monsters and dragons with superhuman powers. The little prince was disappointed with all kinds of ridiculous people with psychological defects or problems, so he had to continue to explore other planets. Finally, I came to the earth and found the answer to the question: "Love is a responsibility", friendship and happiness can only be found through "communication", "Only the mind can see everything, but the naked eye can't see the essence of things." At the end, the hero in the fairy tale found happiness, married his sweetheart for a hundred years, and had a full house of children and grandchildren. But in a sad and gloomy atmosphere, it ended with the "death"-or departure-of the little prince. This implicit ending in fairy tales indicates that the little prince is not dead, and he may have returned to his own planet. If one day the ugly phenomenon disappears on the earth and the world is full of warmth, true feelings and friendship, he may come back.
The Little Prince, similar to other fairy tales, has the universal and symbolic significance of fairy tales and conveys the collective and universal aesthetic ideal passed down from generation to generation. Different from other fairy tales, it injects the author's special life experience and value orientation. In the process of struggling with the sky, planes and society, Saint-Exupery saw through the world of mortals and realized the true meaning of life. In order to express his life experience and values, he chose the fairy tale mode, turning his familiar knowledge into new knowledge and sublimating it by symbolic means, making it more universal and philosophical.
The information conveyed by fairy tale mode is profound and symbolic, which can be described as "rich in words but rich in quality". It should be said that fairy tales are the continuation of myths. For primitive people, nature is the alien force of myth; For modern people, a highly developed industrialized society is also a mythical alien force. As a result, there is a tendency that "modern literature tends to be mythical", and "new fable school" writers have formed a strong lineup. The author of The Little Prince uses fairy tales or myths to show the contradiction between modern society and people through many symbolic stories, and shows the distortion and destruction of people's hearts by modern society, which is one of them. In The Little Prince, a fairy tale for "an adult who used to be a child", it is not only full of sincere love and hate, but also shines with philosophical brilliance. Through mocking words and symbolic metaphors, readers can understand the author's sober reason, his hatred of the evil forces that destroy the world and his disappointment with the absurd real society.
In addition, the fairy tale model "divorced" from the language foundation from the beginning. No matter how ignorant people are about a language and the national culture that produces it, any reader anywhere in the world will definitely regard fairy tales as fairy tales. The value of fairy tales can be preserved in various translations, so fairy tales have universal significance. Fairy tales are not limited by time. They can explain the present, the past and the future, which can be described as "things are near and far away".
Second, the author uses two opposites to create a favorable atmosphere for its symbol. With the help of two opposites (such as the opposition between the little prince and the pilot or the opposition between children and adults, the opposition between the little prince and all kinds of people with psychological defects, the opposition between nature and civilization, the opposition between flowers and weeds, the opposition between the little prince and roses, the opposition between the little prince and foxes, and the opposition between the little prince and snakes), the author contrasts the symbolic atmosphere, explains the world and life, and shows the author's outlook on life and aesthetic stereotypes. For example, after the pilot and the little prince met by chance in the desert, the author described their different views on many specific things and the contradictions and conflicts of their respective values, showing their antagonistic relationship, thus providing the necessary context for the symbols. Saint-Exupery made full use of this means to convey the symbolic meaning with deep meaning (such as the evaluation of world civilization, the author's values, his views on friendship and true feelings, and his views on life and death), thus cynically criticizing the ugly phenomena of modern society (including the destruction of mankind and civilization by fascism, the tragic pollution of modern civilization and the demagogic money worship).
Thirdly, Saint Exupery uses the principle of "part for all" in the laws of "mythical thinking" or "metaphorical thinking" to create. The thinking in images of fairy tales has a so-called splicing ability. There is no abstract preaching here. The abstract logical category (love, evil seedlings, the source of life) is directly replaced by the specific image experience category (flowers, baobabs, water, etc.). ), and the author's aesthetic setting is expressed through the processed "original image". The concrete image here is only a symbolic shell or package, which has both emotional and spiritual content. For example, "flower" is the shell of "true feelings", "friendship" and "human love", and "water" is the carrier of "source of life", "spiritual food", "purification of soul and baptism of holy liquid", which contains broader and deeper meanings, thus embodying the principle of "part belongs to all".
Plain narration is in sharp contrast with concise expression, profound symbol and profound philosophy, which is the result of the author's careful conception and success. The material of fairy tales exists in the author's mind. Only through proper forms of expression can Saint Exupé ry become a poetic fairy tale writer, and The Little Prince can become a writable work that guides readers to participate in writing activities and supplements the author's unspoken intentions.
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Do the symbols in The Little Prince still have practical significance? The answer is yes. 1939, Saint Exupery devoted himself to the anti-fascist struggle. In the battle, he picked up a pen and made a knife and a gun. If "War Zone Pilot" is the most powerful response to "Mein Kampf", then "the proposition that' love is a responsibility' in" The Little Prince "puts forward an urgent and far-reaching thought in a highly concise way at the right time." ? This was "tantamount to a battle order" at that time.
Since 1943 The Little Prince was first published in America, half the world has passed away. But many symbols in the book are still full of vitality today, because the typical characters with psychological defects spurned by the little prince are far from disappearing, and the ugly phenomenon of whipping in the book is far from being eliminated. This is exactly what Saint Exupery wants people to "don't despise this work."