Lessons on Men from “The Little Prince”: The Drunkard
Email this article to a friend
Photo by Tomb Land
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 third one:
THE DRUNKARD FROM THE LITTLE PRINCE
The next planet was inhabited by a drunkard. This visit was a very brief one, but it plunged the little prince into a deep depression.
“What are you doing there?” he asked the drunkard, whom he found sunk in silence before a collection of empty bottles and a collection of full ones.
“Drinking,” replied the drunkard, with a gloomy expression.
“Why are you drinking?” the little prince asked.
“To forget,” replied the drunkard.
“To forget what?” inquired the little prince, who was already feeling sorry for him.
“To forget that I am ashamed,” confessed the drunkard, hanging his head.
“What are you ashamed of?” inquired the little prince, who wanted to help.
“Of drinking!” concluded the drunkard, withdrawing into silence for good. And the little prince went on his way, puzzled.
“Grown-ups are certainly very, very strange,” he said to himself as he continued on his journey.
CONCLUSION
Wow, that is depressing! I’ve never known any alcoholics who were that bad off. But, still, the ones I’ve been close to were equally unwilling or unable to be helped or to help themselves. The best thing you can do to help them is to stop enabling them and to continue working on yourself—and others, if you like, who clearly do want to change their lives for the better and actively work toward that goal with you. (For more on how to do that, see “Help with Overcoming Codependency” and “Easy Anger Management.”) If you do, you’ll always be in a better position to help any addicts you happen to love if and when they really do want to change.
If you want a copy of The Little Prince for your own personal library, click here
Be sure to get the latest articles as soon as they’re posted by signing up here!
