Have you read The Little Prince? Question

[Amethyst]

I have a question about The Little Prince. I just read it for the first time. I’m 59. So, finally right? But my question will contain  a spoiler, so don’t read further if you don’t want to read a spoiler...

.

.

.

.

.

The very next line will contain a spoiler. You’ve been warned...

.

.

.

.

Did he die? I read it that the Little Prince himself went back to his planet, but it was an allegory so the MESSAGE was about death and when someone has died it’s the memories that matter. I ask because after reading the book I read some reviews and one reviewer said that after she and her mom read it when the daughter was 8, her mom tentatively asked, “so, you didn’t understand that the little prince died?”

So, I ask: did he die?

[Arcadia]

It was one of my literature book in either grade 7 or 8. We kind of assumed he did die.

Another reviewer: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/3/7/the-little-prince/

[Amy in NH]

I guess it depends on how you view corporeal existence within a plane of reality. 

I think it is an allegory for a type of spirituality that hinges on the ideas of a "spirit that has a body" and life-after-death.  From that lens, his existence within the plane of reality where the story took place did die, but "he went back to his planet" is the life-after-death part.  IMO, it's about not being afraid to die, and not being afraid to allow someone you love to die.

[Amethyst]

So, if you were reading it with a young child, would you tell that child that he died if that is not how the child understood it?

[Arcadia]

52 minutes ago, Amethyst said:

So, if you were reading it with a young child, would you tell that child that he died if that is not how the child understood it?

No. Same way as I won’t tell a child about Santa, tooth fairy or Easter bunny.

[regentrude]

1 hour ago, Amethyst said:

So, if you were reading it with a young child, would you tell that child that he died if that is not how the child understood it?

No. There is beauty in allegory and poetic ambiguity that should not be destroyed by explanations. As a poet, I feel very strongly about that. 

[Amethyst]

Proof he did NOT die:

”when you look up at the sky at night, I’ll be living on one of them”

”it’ll look like I’m suffering. It’ll look like I’m dying” [implying that he’s not dying]
 

”at daybreak I didn’t find his body”

[Drama Llama]

18 minutes ago, regentrude said:

No. There is beauty in allegory and poetic ambiguity that should not be destroyed by explanations. As a poet, I feel very strongly about that. 

This. 

[Amethyst]

I still say that he went back to his own planet. And that’s the allegory. 
 

Like in Animal Farm, the horse is sent to a glue factory. Period. And that REPRESENTS people who think any problem can be solved by working harder but don’t realize that there are folks that will betray you no matter how hard you work. But the horse was sent to a glue factory. 
And the prince went back to his planet. 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Amethyst