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Why does the prince adopt a conciliatory attitude in Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince?

To have a conciliatory attitude is to desire to "reconcile" a situation" by "overcom[ing] the distrust or hostility of" a person, even to make the person "stop arguing with you" (Random House Dictionary; Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). In Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, the character called the little prince has left his home planet because he began arguing with a rose he was caring for, who made him feel...

To have a conciliatory attitude is to desire to "reconcile" a situation" by "overcom[ing] the distrust or hostility of" a person, even to make the person "stop arguing with you" (Random House Dictionary; Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). In Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, the character called the little prince has left his home planet because he began arguing with a rose he was caring for, who made him feel unloved and unwanted; therefore, he went off in search of true companionship. It is not until he reaches Earth and meets the fox that he finally learns what true companionship is. The fox's life lessons help the little prince regret leaving his rose and to desire to reconcile with her, thereby helping him adopt a conciliatory attitude.

When the prince meets the fox, the fox asks the prince to tame him because he is tired of his everyday life; life has no meaning for the fox. The fox explains that to tame someone is to "establish ties," thereby making that person special to you, just as the rose made she and the prince special to each other. The prince undertakes taming the fox but is distressed when, once the prince announces he must leave, the fox says he will cry. In the prince's mind, hurting the fox was a bad thing and, therefore, taming the fox was a bad thing. But, the fox explains that taming him was a good thing because, even though he feels hurt, he now has special memories of the prince to hold onto that make his days less ordinary. Through this experience with the fox, the prince understands how important taming is.

The fox then advises the prince to look once more at the roses in the garden he saw. It is at this moment that the prince understands his rose is unique to him in all the world because they have tamed each other. The fox then tells him, "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose ..." (Ch. 21). It is at this moment that the prince knows he must return to his rose to reconcile with her.

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