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Chapter 26
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Little Prince, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Relationships
The True and the Essential
Exploration vs. Narrowmindedness
Childhood vs. Adulthood
Innocence
Summary
Analysis
Six years later, the pilot writes this story. He is reassured by the fact that the little prince's body disappeared the day after the scene with the snake and believes that the little prince really did make it back to his planet. However, the pilot realizes that he forgot to add a leather strap to the muzzle he drew for the little prince's sheep, and so he worries that the sheep may have eaten the rose. He asks the readers whether they believe the sheep has eaten the rose or not and emphasizes how essential the outcome of this question is.
The pilot, after building his relationship with the little prince and allowing that relationship to grow in his mind even after the prince has left, now recognizes the importance of questions like the one with the sheep and the rose. He understands that the rose is dear to the little prince, and its existence therefore makes a difference in the universe.
Themes
The pilot draws the landscape of the little prince's site of arrival and departure—two desert hills and a single star—and beseeches readers to pay attention should they find themselves in this spot in Africa. If so, the narrator asks that they stay for a while under the star and send word if the little prince appears.
The narrator remembers his relationship with the little prince and asks that readers remember it too, should they go exploring. The implication is that relationships grow; they can go from being shared between two to being shared between many. And relationships are what the narrator considers most important.
Themes
