The Little Prince

Finally, the prince came to a road and followed it to a rose garden. He greeted the roses, noticing that they looked like the flower on his home planet. When the roses told him what kind of flower they were, the prince was disappointed because he had thought his flower was unique. He imagined that if his flower were there, "[s]he would cough terribly and pretend to be dying, to avoid being laughed at. And [he]'d have to pretend to be nursing her, otherwise, she'd really let herself die in order to humiliate [him]" (56). Realizing that all he'd owned was "an ordinary rose" (56)and three volcanoes, the prince laid down and started crying.

As the prince continued to cry, a fox appeared and greeted him, and the prince—feeling sad and lonely—invited the fox to play with him. The fox explained that he couldn't because he wasn't tamed and asked what the prince was looking for. The prince, confused about the meaning of "taming," continued to press the fox for answers until he explained that it meant "to create ties" (59)and establish a unique, personal relationship. The prince replied that the flower back on his planet had tamed him, and then discussed his home with the fox, who wanted to know whether it was home to either hunters or chickens.