Jared Filart
Mr. E.P Salazar
Year IV-A
March 7, 2014

Maturity over Message? The Little Prince written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is one of the most controversial novels of its time. It reflects the main ideas about relationships. The Alchemist on the other hand is about one person, named Santiago, who tries to achieve his personal legend. This personal legend is his goal in life. Despite some differences in the notion of maturity as present in these two texts, they both exhibit the theme of observing not only through the eyes but with the heart. I. The Little Prince a. The Quest of the Little Prince
The topic regarding the quest of The Little Prince, somewhat is a debatable subject because of the fact that it was not explicitly stated, although despite this, it was seen in the story that he was searching for his true purpose. At the start, the Little Prince asked questions stubbornly just like any child would. This was not his true purpose, but it is related to it.
Children are naturally curious and want to explore without knowing it. In the book, the Little Prince was actually “bored” of his planet. This was seen with the fact that throughout the course of the book, he was only in his planet for a few days; he spent the rest of the time exploring other planets because he was fed up with his rose. He wanted to give the rose some space, and by doing so, he left his planet and actually found his true purpose, which was to look for answers to life. b. Theme in the Little Prince
During his quest for his true purpose, he meets several people along his journey. Among these people, one of them was the fox. His conversation with the fox is actually the most important conversation of the book because this is actually what the book is about. Their conversation was about relationships and friendships, and in this conversation, he actually found out the solution to his problem with the rose.

“And now here is my secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” (de Saint-Exupery)

These are the words of the fox, and the Little Prince discovers the meaning of how he has too look with his heart and his eyes as they can often deceive. By learning this, he develops a deeper understanding of how everything in the universe works, including love and friendship. With this, he realizes how much he loves his rose and decides to go back to her.
The quote of the fox, in fact, is the main theme of the story. It is actually self-explanatory which states that one cannot see rightly with the mere use of the eyes. What is essential in something is usually invisible to the eye. This was what the Little Prince realized when he decided to go back to his rose. He realized that even though there are thousands of roses that look like his rose, the difference is that it is his personal rose, and this is what his heart saw. He applied what he learned from the fox, and this evolved to be the main theme of the story.
Another theme of the story is the point that human kind is very often too pre-occupied with wealth, technology, and power to realize the true essential things in life, which are love, friendship, and beauty. This theme was manifested in the story when the Little Prince went from planet to planet meeting different characters. He encountered the Businessman, which is actually the epitome of the person who is pre-occupied with wealth. The King on the other hand was too pre-occupied with power, and these characters best showed these characteristics.

“Men have no more time to understand anything. They buy tings all ready made at the shops. But there is no shop anywhere where one can buy friendship, and so men have no friends anymore.” (de Saint-Exupery)

This quote of the fox sums up the generalizations on adults, and these generalizations lead to the main idea of the sub theme, which is that humans are too pre-occupied with earthly things.
The Little Prince acted merely as a tourist to these people because of the fact that he only encountered them when he visited the different planets. He learned the flaws of people and actually put these lessons into action in his own life. This is how the Little Prince evolved. He started off as an innocent being, but ended up encountering every kind of person there is in the universe. c. Outlook of the Little Prince The Little Prince had an outlook in life; he wanted to complete or discover his “personal legend”. He did not allow himself to be distracted because he was doing anything in his power to learn, and he did not allow negative characteristics such as greed to affect his way of life. He could have stayed on his home planet, but he knew that staying there was not what he was meant to do. When he left his home planet, he learned so many characteristics about adults, and he did not want to be like them; he actually detested adults because of how they acted. He did not become the person he detested, and his outlook on life remained constant the whole course of the story. II. The Alchemist d. Quest of Santiago
Santiago, from the very beginning, had a clear purpose in his life, and this is to achieve his goal, his personal legend. This personal legend was to journey to the pyramids. It first started of as a dream, but then he had it interpreted and all the characters implied that it is really his personal legend to journey to the pyramids. During his journey, a thief robs him, and this thief forced him to find work with a local crystal merchant. This merchant teaches him lessons, and while he was learning lessons, he also told the merchant to take risks with his business. Santiago does so and becomes a rich man in just a year.
Santiago decides to spend the money he earned to continue pursuing his personal legend. He joins a caravan crossing the Sahara desert, which had to make an extended stop in Al-Fayoum in order to avoid the violence-taking place in the desert. While he was there, he falls in love with Fatima, a girl who lives at the oasis. After a while, Santiago leaves to finish his journey and at the same time leaves Fatima. He finally understood where his treasure was, and he returns to Spain to find the chest buried under the tree. He planned to return it to Al-Fayoum and will reunite with Fatima there. e. Themes in The Alchemist
The quest of Santiago was to find his true purpose, and this true purpose brought about the whole theme of the story, which is the point that humankind is pre-occupied with pleasures of life such as wealth, technology, and power. This was very much manifested in the scene of the Englishman, who is too busy trying to understand how alchemy works more than why it works. If he took the outlook of Santiago, he would have realized that there is one thing that makes everything in the universe possible, love. The Englishman believed that it is spells and potions that made things in the universe work, but this was not the case. This is why this is the theme of the story because of the fact that theme was manifested by a very major part in the book. f. Outlook in The Alchemist
Santiago had a very determined mind when he wanted to finish his quest. He did not allow his love for Fatima to get in his way. What he did was he left Fatima to achieve his goal, and that was the time he went back to her. With this, it is seen that he did not allow himself to be distracted from anything, even the love of his life. Aside from this, he did not allow himself to be distracted by greed, because he could have stayed with the crystal merchant and get even richer. He had a clear mindset that he had to achieve his personal legend at that certain period of time. He did not let the idea of money get in his way because he knew that it could wait. This also applies to his love for Fatima; he knew that he could always go back after achieving his personal legend. That is what happened and he achieved everything he wanted. III. The Little Prince vs. The Alchemist g. Difference in the notion of Maturity
One very important idea in a text is their thesis, and these two stories have opposite topics regarding the notion of maturity. In The Alchemist, the main idea for Santiago is growing up and realizing the meaning of his life by achieving his personal legend. This is seen by the way he was acting to achieve his personal legend. Throughout his journey, he learns experiences and new concepts even though they were portrayed in a dissimilar way to what one usually expects. An example of this is when he learns patience while working with the merchant. Patience is something adults need in their lives, and people who learn to be more patient tend to be more mature. Also, he learns the difference between dreams and achieving those dreams. By the end of his journey, he became more mature and more experienced from the time before he started his journey. Also, he learned about love and the true meaning of love as shown in his love story with Fatima.
The Little Prince on the other hand was is about the importance of staying young and not becoming a flat minded adult. Throughout the course of the story, it was evident that he did not want to become an adult because he dreaded them. At the beginning of the book, de Saint-Exupery displays his opinion on how adults often overlook the true meaning of things and only see the exterior impression of them, as seen in the Drawing Number 1. When the narrator met the Little Prince, he realized that he is someone with a character who depicts a child with an open mind and heart. The Little Prince sees things for what they truly are ant not what a first impression may imply. h. Similarity of Themes despite the difference in the notion of maturity
These differences are merely just differences in the notion of maturity. Even though this is the case, these differences, no matter how contradictory they are, convey the same message. These messages are actually the central themes in the story. The central theme in The Little Prince is “What is essential is invisible to the eye” (de Saint-Exupery). Another theme in this novelette is that humans are too preoccupied with earthly things such as wealth, technology and power, which lead them not to realize the true essential things in life. In The Alchemist on the other hand, Coelho tries to convey the same message by showing that the Englishman is so busy looking for how things work instead of why they work. The answers to why they work are actually the essential aspects in life such as love, friendship, and beauty.
Aside from the similarity in the message conveyed by both authors, the main characters in both stories have the same outlook in life. They both did not allow themselves to be distracted by earthly things such as money and women. Even if The Little Prince is about staying young, it was seen that they could still be clear with their mindset in life, such as how a growing man like Santiago was. IV. Conclusion
The Little Prince is about staying young and being innocent. The Alchemist on the other hand is about growing up and learning things along the journey. Despite these two contradicting ideas, both authors still managed to convey the same message, which is humans are too pre-occupied with earthly things. Finally, it is also seen that both mature and innocent can be clear with their mindset in life.

Works Cited List

Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. HarperCollins. 2006. Print.

de Saint-Exupery, Antoine. The Little Prince. Mariner Books. 2000. Print.

Hawke, Ethan. The Hottest State. Little, Brown and Company. 1996. Print.

Raboteau, Emily. The Professor’s Daughter. Henry Holt and Co. 2005. Print.

Sparks, Nicholas. The Rescue. Grand Central Publishing. 2001. Print.

“The Alchemist Summary.” Sparknotes. n.p. n.d. Web. 9 Mar 2014. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-alchemist/summary.html>

“The Little Prince: Literary Element Analysis.” TheBestNotes. n.p. 14 May 2008.
Web. 9 Mar 2014 <http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Little_Prince_Exupery/The_Little_Prince_Study_Guide13.html> “Themes, Motifs, and Symbols in The Little Prince.” Sparknotes. n.p, n.d. Web. 9
Mar 2014. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/littleprince/themes.html>