Quote 4
“You understand… It is too far. I cannot carry this body with me. It is too heavy.”
I said nothing.
“But it will be like an old abandoned shell. There is nothing sad about old shells…”(26.70-72)
The prince is about to undergo a transformation that is so intense that he will be leaving his body behind. Even so, he tells the narrator not to be upset. For the prince, the end of “this body” doesn’t mean the end of his being or the end of his life. Instead, he compares his body, once he will leave it, to “an old abandoned shell.” The body is just like a carrying case for what really matters, which is inside.
Quote 5
“That doesn’t matter. Where I live, everything is so small!”
And, with perhaps a hint of sadness, he added:
“Straight ahead of him, nobody can go very far…” (3.28-30)
We’re only in chapter 3 and already there are signs that this isn’t going to be the happiest of books. Uh-oh. The prince is talking about his home, which should be a happy thing, but there’s “a hint of sadness,” in his tone. Although he loves his planet and it’s dear to him, its size has also limited him.
Quote 6
“If some one loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself: ‘Somewhere, my flower is there…’ But if the sheep eats the flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened… And you think that is not important!” (7.30)
The prince’s life may have been limited, in what he could see or do or enjoy, but that didn’t keep him from becoming wise. In fact, even without much experience or education, the prince knows what can take a person from happiness to total dejection in the blink of an eye.