Lessons on Men from “The Little Prince”: The Very Vain Man
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The Little Prince
As the story goes, the little prince was a boy who was the only human inhabitant of a tiny island. His life was simple there, filled with various chores and simple pleasures, such as watching sunsets after his work was done. Until one day, a beautiful rose appeared and he fell in love with her.
But, the rose was rather moody and difficult to get along with—what we would call today, “high-maintenance.” And, so, he decided to leave her and see what he could find in the rest of the universe, as he had never before left his tiny planet.
On his adventure, he first encountered a series of men, one on each of their own tiny planets. (But, scientists would call them “asteroids.”) There were six such tiny planets/asteroids in all. Here is what the little prince found on the second one:
THE VERY VAIN MAN FROM THE LITTLE PRINCE
The second planet was inhabited by a very vain man.
“Ah! A visit from an admirer!” he exclaimed when he caught sight of the little prince, still at some distance. To vain men, other people are admirers.
“Hello,” said the little prince. “That’s a funny hat you’re wearing.”
“It’s for answering acclamations,” the very vain man replied. “Unfortunately, no one ever comes this way.”
“Is that so?” said the little prince, who did not understand what the vain man was talking about.
“Clap your hands,” directed the man.
The little prince clapped his hands, and the very vain man tipped his hat in modest acknowledgment.
This is more entertaining than the visit to the king, the little prince said to himself. And he continued clapping. The very vain man continued tipping his hat in acknowledgment.
After five minutes of this exercise, the little prince tired of the game’s monotony. “And what would make the hat fall off?” he asked.
But the vain man did not hear him. Vain men never hear anything but praise.
“Do you really admire me a great deal?” he asked the little prince.
“What does that mean—admire?”
“To admire means to acknowledge that I am the handsomest, the best-dressed, the richest, and the most intelligent man on the planet.”
“But you’re the only man on your planet!”
“Do me this favor. Admire me all the same.”
“I admire you,” said the little prince, with a little shrug of his shoulders, “but what is there about my admiration that interests you so much?” And the little prince went on his way.
“Grown-ups are certainly very strange,” he said to himself as he continued on his journey.
CONCLUSION
Why do you think the very vain man is so interested in everyone’s admiration, even that of a little boy’s, and not in the least bit interested in anything else? Nor, is this man’s vanity diminished—even just a little bit—by the fact that he’s the only man on that planet and, thus, must be, by default only, the greatest man on it!
He reminds me of my dad a little. He loved it when I and my sisters were little kids and believed all the stories he told us of how great he was. To hear him tell it, he was born naturally gifted with a brilliant mind, a perfect body, and every imaginable heroic and saintly virtue ever extolled by humankind. We were his tiny planet. And, like the little prince, we eventually grew tired of constantly applauding him. And, since, like the very vain man, he was never much interested in anything else—least of all our growing lives—we eventually grew apart. I’ll never know for sure, but I think he desperately needed our admiration to feel that his life was worth it—all the hardships he’d endured, all the troubles of the day, and all the frightening unknowns of his future. If we thought he was the greatest, then he could go on. But, it wasn’t enough for him to do things the way he was doing it if it was just for himself, because he wasn’t doing any of it for himself. He wasn’t pursuing his dream life. He was trying to play the role of dutiful husband, father, and breadwinner.
Maybe the very vain man in the story above never did what he really loved either. Maybe that’s why he needs others to tell him how great he is. How very sad!
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