Motive For Metaphor And Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince

Imagination is a skill everyone possesses, but children utilise their imaginations to the full extent, whereas adults do not use their imaginations to their full potential, and this idea is demonstrated through Northrop Frye’s Motive for Metaphor and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. The following quote by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless” expresses that the world of reality, the world in which adults live in, is one of limited imagination because the adults have experienced the problems that life has to offer and this, in turn, makes them more practical and grounded. While the world of imagination, the world in which children live in, is boundless because children

The Narrator’s creativity is questioned because adults can not imagine a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant whole as the Narrator can. Therefore, the narrator is forced to draw another picture of a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant which the grownups can clearly understand with their practical thinking and real-world knowledge, “The inside of the boa constrictor so that the grown-ups could see it clearly” (de Saint-Exupéry 2). As life progresses on, people mature with all of their life experiences and problems faced by them and they began to lose perspective of the, however, this does not impact child’s perspective of the world because they are isolated from the issues of the world. Children perceive the world to be a perfect place which results in them having imaginations with endless possibilities whereas adults place limits on their creativity because they have experienced the reality of life. Therefore, Northrop Frye’s essay The Motive for Metaphor and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince demonstrate how children are able to use their imagination to its full potential, while adults do