Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince raises fundamental philosophical issues about human life and its actual values. The protagonist undergoes internal evolution and gains an understanding that genuinely precious things are intangible. Instead, they can be perceived only by the heart. Subsequently, numerous other writers have adopted this narrative strategy. In particular, the characters from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff learn the same lesson as Little Prince/Narrator does.
The House on Mango Street (1984) is a coming-of-age narrative about a Mexican-American girl from a poor Chicago suburb. In the first chapters of the story, little Esperanza Cordero, the protagonist of the novel, is ashamed of their living conditions. In fact, in their house, “bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in” (Cisneros 4). That is why Esperanza’s dearest wish is to have a new and comfortable house, which she could be proud of: “I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to” (Cisneros 5). As one can observe, at first, the protagonist focuses primarily on tangible things and material goods.
For Esperanza, life on Mango Street is suffocating and constrained. As she grows up, the protagonist witnesses numerous examples of male oppression among its inhabitants. Indeed, most women on Mango Street suffer from physical, sexual, or psychological abuse. Therefore, throughout the novel, the protagonist desperately wants to escape this neighborhood someday. For instance, she imparts her dream in a conversation with her friend Sally: “Do you wish your feet would one day keep walking and take you far away from Mango Street, far away…” (Cisneros 82). Hence, Esperanza aspires to leave Mango Street as she persistently feels that she does not belong to that place.
However, as the protagonist grows up, she finally develops an understanding that Mango Street is not just a poor area with financial hardships. This place, along with its inhabitants and relationships between them, contributes to Esperanza’s emotional and physiological maturation. This place shapes her dreams and personality, helps Esperanza to understand life, and to realize who she is. Therefore, it will always remain an integral part of the character’s identity. In other words, the protagonist learns to find beauty in a seemingly ugly context and eventually reaches her self-fulfillment. In such a manner, Esperanza is similar to the Little Prince/Narrator from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s story.
Bullet in the Brain (2013) features a scene in the bank, where Anders, a sarcastic book critic, encounters the two robbers. The protagonist is a highly contemptuous and scornful person. He treats everyone around him with cynicism and mockery. Even when the robber threatens him with a loaded gun, the character cannot constrain his temper and criticizes the criminals’ clichéd language. As a result, Anders gets shot in the head. Within the last moments of his life, several memories from the protagonist’s life come forth.
As Anders’s life passes before his eyes, the character remembers nothing but one scene from his childhood. The author deliberately emphasizes that the protagonist, for some reason, does not remember seemingly the most critical events in his life. Instead, the narrator briefly enlists these facts to give the reader an idea about the character’s personality. Indeed, at his death hour, Anders does not think of his first love, his father’s death, or his college education, which inspired him to choose literary criticism as a profession. In such a manner, the author points out that Anders has been a stubborn cynic for a long time.
The last scene described in the story is a single memory, which occupies Anders’s brain before his death. It features a baseball game from his childhood, during which a fellow boy makes a grammar mistake. This error deeply impresses young Anders, and he is excited about its sounding. In contrast to his adult habits to criticize people’s language, the protagonist suddenly remembers how to feel respect for others and to accept otherness. In the last moment of his life, the character finally realizes that words are not an object of criticism and mockery but rather a unique means for the self-expression of each person. As one can observe, for an instantaneous moment, Anders manages to regain his innocence, and therefore resembles the Little Prince/Narrator.
Thus, both Esperanza and Anders undergo internal evolution and gain the experience, similar to the lesson learned by the Little Prince/Narrator in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s story. The lesson learned involves reconsidering the values of human life and appreciating things that are intangible, but truly important. Esperanza understands that the essential aspects of life are not money or comfortable houses, but rather the nonmaterial benefits, such as regaining one’s true self and achieving internal harmony. Similarly, Anders comprehends that fundamental phenomena, such as other people’s singularity, cannot be grasped physically as written or spoken words, but can only be perceived by one’s heart.
Work Cited
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. Vintage Books, 1991.