The Little Prince Characters

The narrator (the pilot)

A grown-up who failed at being one: his childhood drawings were mistaken for hats, so he became a pilot instead of a painter. Stranded in the Sahara, he befriends the little prince, repairs his engine, and ends the book staring at the stars, wondering about a sheep and a rose.

Appears in:

Part 1: A Drawing Grown-Ups Mistook for a Hat

Part 3: Earth: Five Thousand Roses and a Fox

Part 4: The Well, the Bite, and the Sky That Hums

Themes:

Grown-ups have forgotten

Taming and responsibility

Childhood as a way of knowing

The little prince

A small boy from Asteroid B-612 who left a rose he loved badly and toured six planets of absurd adults before landing on Earth. A fox teaches him that taming creates ties, and he returns home by letting a snake bite him.

The rose

Vain, demanding, and lying about her origins, she loved the prince without knowing how to say it until his departure. She refuses her glass globe and stays behind on the tiny planet he must protect from a sheep.

Appears in:

Part 2: A Vain Rose and Six Absurd Planets

Part 3: Earth: Five Thousand Roses and a Fox

Part 4: The Well, the Bite, and the Sky That Hums

Themes:

Taming and responsibility

Loneliness and departure

The fox

The book's teacher, who asks to be tamed and explains that ties make one thing unlike a hundred thousand others. He gives away the secret of seeing with the heart and the weight of responsibility.

Appears in:

Part 3: Earth: Five Thousand Roses and a Fox

Themes:

Taming and responsibility

Seeing with the heart

The snake

A riddling creature met in the desert who holds the power of return. At the prince's request, its poison sends him home, leaving no trace behind.

Appears in:

Part 3: Earth: Five Thousand Roses and a Fox

Part 4: The Well, the Bite, and the Sky That Hums