Various School Essays

The Little Prince Continued..

Hi! I wrote this long essay in 8th grade as well. The assignment was to write the next chapter of "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Of course if you haven't read the book, you won't understand this very well

                       XXVIII 1/2

The snake kindly wrapped himself around the Prince's ankle and quietly hissed, “Goodbye, young prince.”   

With that, the prince promptly fell asleep. The little prince woke up in a cradle of roots. He groggily stood and walked the short circumference of his once-trimmed planet. To his astonishment, all three of his volcanoes, even the extinct one, were spewing lava onto the greenery surrounding them. He slowly looked up to see two great baobabs towering above him. He had been worried this would happen. He found his rake half buried in weeds and grass and proceeded to rake out the upset volcanoes. He was happy to be doing chores that he used to do, even though he had to duck several times to avoid low branches on the new trees.

While he was raking out the last volcano, he noticed a small hole of recently upturned asteroid soil. He put his rake down and kneeled by the hole, which was no larger than his hand. There was a single red rose petal at the bottom, brown and shriveled up around the edges. This happened to be the very spot where the rose was rooted before The Little Prince had left her. Someone had stole his Rose? Who would do such a thing! The prince feels furious at whoever took her. He looks toward Earth, just a small star among millions of others.(The little prince thought it was interesting how when he's on a planet, others are just small bright dots. But when he travels to one, the planet he was just on is simply another star.)

The Prince had gone several days without the Rose’s nagging comments drifting around his planet. He felt empty inside, and he couldn’t help wondering if maybe the Rose just grew lonely and went to another planet! Maybe the caterpillars or tigers ate her up! She was so naive with just four ridiculous thorns to defend herself with. The Prince broke down in tears; she had tamed him!

The only company he had was the two baobabs on opposite sides of the asteroid. He also discovered that the trees could speak. The only annoyance was that they are constantly arguing with each other.

“No, I was sprouted first!”

“You speak rubbish, little one, I saw you with my own 12 branches while you were but a wee sapling!”

“Then how come I have 24 more leaves?”

  The conflict was, the prince found, that since they grew on opposite sides of the planet, they didn't notice each other until they were large enough to see the other side.

The prince finally decided to leave the planet in search of his rose, whom he missed dearly. He traveled first to the king, who, instead of calling him a subject, named the prince a “savior.” He was mystified by this change of character and asked the king what was wrong. He responded simply with a disheartened wave towards where his golden throne once stood. He choked out, “Someone robbed me of my throne,” and after a quick thought, he added, “and my power to command reasonable things, for I am a kindly ruler.”

The Prince sadly said, “I have lost something dear to me too.”

    The king gathered his tear-stained ermine robe, and seemed to also gather his courage. “I… I command you to take me on your search for something dear to you, for I have nothing left here anyway.

“Very well, ” the prince was glad to have someone to travel with, even a strange grown-up.

Next was a visit to the very vain man. “Ah! An admirer has come!” The vain man exclaimed.

    Now the king did not like this comment, and accusingly retorted, “I am the king, robbed of his throne. Did you steal it?”

The vain man replied, “Do you admire me? If so, I will tell you if I took this throne.”

The king responded, slightly flustered, “I command you to be admired, now tell me!”

“I would never steal, for then I couldn't be admired!”

    With a shrug of dismissal, the prince and the King continued on their way.

The third planet was still inhabited by the businessman. The prince observed that his desk was filled with numbers scratched into the surface. Also, his cigarette was lit, and he was puffing furiously at it.

    “Whatever could you be doing to your poor desk?”

    “228,229,230,234,235,” the businessman was muttering.

    “Why are you writing on your desk?” the prince asked, a little bit louder that time, for he had never in all his life let go of a question once he asked it.

The businessman raised his head and said, “Someone stole my papers! I cannot write down how many stars I own and put them in a drawer anymore. Now I might as well not own any! I might as well not be rich!” He took the butt of his cigarette and extinguished it in a nearby ashtray.

“But I own the stars!” The king blurts.

“You kings don't own. You reign over...It’s quite different. And since I am a serious person, I will find whoever took my business away from under my nose.”

The prince, king, and businessman continued in this manner until they had gathered the drunkard, whose liquor seemed to be missing, the geographer, whose geography book had been hijacked, and finally, the lamplighter, who had nothing to light with his torch.

Together, they searched every planet in the vicinity of asteroids 235 through 330. When their pursuit to find this thief came up fruitless, everyone sadly went back to their  home planets to mope about. The little prince dropped his head, overcome with heartbreak and a feeling of desolation. He went back to his planet and slid down against one of the baobab’s trunk. The trees were strangely silent, barely exchanging a word with each other. Suddenly, a man wearing a black mask leaped out next to the boy. The prince jumped up and addressed the man.

“Who are you!” the prince hissed, bristling.

“Why, I am the thief who you have been looking for” he said, his voice like honey.

The prince stands up and glares at the man, “What are you doing here? You took my rose!”

“Yes, and I stole what made each man unique on asteroids 235,236,237,238,239,and 230. The lamplighters lamp, the geographers geography book… Now they are all alike, just blabbering men.”

The prince had taken a great interest in the black cotton mask the thief was wearing, and had an idea forming in his mind.

“What is that you're wearing on your face?”

“Oh! This?” he pinched the fabric. “I just cut it out from an old sweater.”

“Can I touch it? It looks quite uncomfortable.”

The thief leaned towards the prince, jutting his chin out. With one fluid motion, the little prince ripped the mask off his head and shoved it in a hole in the baobab he is pressing against. The thief throws his hands to his face, barely covering the utterly repulsed and horrified look that’s crossing his face.

“How could you!” he almost screams, “I can't steal and be caught! My identity is supposed to be hidden!” With that, he turns and flees. The prince sees a flash of rose-red upon the thief's departure, and excitedly walked over the the second baobab, crouching down to peer into a dark hole in the roots. There is his lovely rose,thrown down in the ground. Her petals were brown and wrinkled.

“There you are, whatever could take you so long?”

The prince gingerly picks up the flower. A few damaged petals flutter to the ground.

“Don't look at me, I am ugly!”

“I don't care what you look like on the outside, for a wise fox once told me that one sees only with the heart. And anything essential is invisible to the eye.”