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15. Gancia, Mariella Aubrey R.

20. Lacson, Jemil Austin M.

OCCASIONAL PAPER NO. 2: THE PSYCHIC ZONES OF ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPERY AS MANIFESTED IN HIS
NOVEL, THE LITTLE PRINCE
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born the third out of five children on June 29, 1900 in Lyon, France. With the
death of his father and his only brother, Francois, Antoine, age 17 then, became the father figure of his family. He
failed his final exams in his Naval Academy twice, some say intentionally. It was thereafter that he decided to pursue
aviation, a passion he had. In 1921, he joined the French Air Force. He later quit this job to become an air mail flyer
across the Sahara desert. On December 30, 1935, Saint-Exupery, along with his mechanic-navigator, experienced a
plane crash. This plane crash served as the inspiration for his novel, The Little Prince, published in 1943. (Courtivron,
1995) This catastrophe, we believe, is the wake-up call for his three psychic zones. According to Sigmund Freud,
these three psychic zones are as follows: The Id, working under the pleasure principle, the Ego, working under the
reality principle, and the Superego, working under morality principle. In this paper, we will break down Saint-Exuperys
actions and decisions as manifested in his novel, The Little Prince, to support and further explain why Saint-Exupery
favored his Superego over his Id.
In the novel, the Id was represented by the Little Prince himself, the Ego by the narrator/the pilot, and the
Superego by the adults living in the different asteroids and planets. The Id functions to fulfill the primordial life
function, the Ego serves as the intermediary between the world within and the world without, and the Superego
serves to repress or inhibit the drives of the Id. (Guerin 2005) The interaction and manifestation of his Id and his
Superego started when he first drew the elephant being swallowed by the boa constrictor. It is here where the Ego first
follows the Superego, where the narrator first follows the adults, by discontinuing what might have been a magnificent
career as a painter. Years later, however, his plane crash in the Sahara desert, awakened his Id. This symbolizes a
dark time in Exuperys life. In this moment in the novel, the Id begins to manifest in the form of the Little Prince,
symbolizing his longing for a lost childhood. In this scene in the novel, we see Exuperys Egos defense mechanism.
Defense Mechanisms are defined as the manner in which we behave or think in certain ways to better protect or
defend ourselves. (Grohol, 2007). Defense mechanisms are shown throughout the different characters of the novel
but the manifestation of Exuperys Ego showed regression. Regression is reverting back to a childlike emotional state
in which your unconscious fears, anxieties, and general "angst" reappear. (Whitbourne, 2011). It also the reversion to
an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable thoughts or impulses. (Grohol, 2007). Exuperys
regression in the form of the Little Prince is the way in which he tried to cope with the problems. When the narrator
first meets the Little Prince, he was astounded when the Little Prince sees his drawing of a boa constrictor as how the
narrator wants it to be. It is in this way, the narrator finds if the person was really one of true understanding. The Little
Prince works only under his terms. He follows only what he wants. These are characteristics shown by the Id. The
narrator conversing with the Little Prince is Exupery reliving his childhood experiences and reflecting on the adults he
encountered as a child, seeing them in the eyes of the child. In the novel, the Little Prince finds adults irrational and
queer with ethics he doesnt understand. This shows how the Id views the Superego. The adults also work under an
invisible society with abstract orders that differ in each planet but ultimately have a common denominator: they all
conform. Ultimately, the Ego tries copes with his Id by listening to it. This shows his desire for happiness brought only
by the pleasure of the Id. The Id has been foreign to the Ego. Since his childhood, the narrators Id has been
repressed by the adults telling him to devote himself to other things. As the story progresses, we see the Ego and the
Id slowly being more comfortable with each other but at the end of the novel, the Ego remembers that ultimately, he
has to go home. With this, the Ego also has to stop following the Id. The death of the Little Prince references to the
death of Exuperys own brother. This shows his acceptance that he cant remain as a child forever and that he has to
also listen to his Superego and come back home.
In conclusion to this, we believe that the Exuperys ego ultimately followed his Superego but not before
experiencing sadness with the loss of his childhood manifested in the form of his Id. It is shown in the novel that the
pilot had returned home showing him following his Superego. As the narrator looks at the stars, he is reminded of his
childhood, the Little Prince. This shows that Exupery still finds comfort in the thought of his childhood still existing but
hes living the life society tells him to. This only proves that Exupery did have a troubled childhood leading him to
accept adult life early in his life. He wanted nothing more than to go back to this childhood and appreciate the happy
moments. While doing this paper, we realized that the Id is not always evil. Sometimes, this pleasure we desire, is the
pleasure taken from us. With the applications of the psychic zones, we learned that everyone has these psychic zones
and it is important to keep the balance between them to avoid regretting.
REFERENCES:
Exupery, A. D. S. (1943). The Little Prince. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company
Courtivron I. D. At Home in the Air (1995, January 8) retrieved from http://nytimes.com on October 11, 2015
Guerin, W. L. (2005). A Handbook of Critical Approacher to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press.
Grohol, J. N. 15 Common Defense Mechanisms (2007, October 26) retrieved from http://psychcentral.com on October
11, 2015.
Whitbourne, S. K. The Essential Guide to Defense Mechanisms (2011, October 22) retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com on October 11, 2015

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15. Gancia, Mariella Aubrey R.

20. Lacson, Jemil Austin M.

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