The books The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery and Walkabout by James Vance Marshall explore the topics of relationships and childhood in unique ways. Told as an allegory, The Little Prince uses symbolism and metaphor to describe how children lose their sense of creativity while growing up, and how people don't always value the relationships they have. Walkabout depicts how two American children and an Aboriginal boy change as they survive in the Australian outback. Both of these books take these themes and interpret them in different ways, leaving the readers with impressions of their author’s views.

The Little Prince explores the theme of relationships by teaching us that all relationships are unique. In the book, the Little Prince learns this after he leaves his small planet and his Flower behind to explore the Universe. During his journey he lands on Earth and learns that flowers like his Flower are in fact common and not rare like he was told, but soon after he meets the Fox who tells him, “I am nothing more like a fox than a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world.” By saying this, the Fox is explaining to the Little Prince that the experiences you share with others are the most important part of relationships, not superficial qualities like how important the person you are friends with is perceived to be. From Saint-Exupery’s background as a popular author and pilot, this might be a lesson that he learned in his life that he wanted to convey to others.

Marshall places lots of emphasis on the relationships between the three children who are isolated together from their respective societies in the Australian outback. After Peter and Mary's father dies in the plane crash, their relationship as brother and sister changes immediately, which is made worse by their survival situation. Even though Mary is only thirteen years old, she becomes the sole protector of her eight year old brother Peter. While she always had been responsible for her brother as an older sibling, becoming stranded in the Australian outback made her feel like, “she must mother him as well.” When they meet the Aboriginal boy, some of the pressure is taken off of Mary, but she instead becomes jealous at how Peter relies more on the Aboriginal boy than herself. Having grown up in the American South, they both hold prejudices against the dark skinned Aboriginal, but Peter overcomes them much more quickly than Mary. Peter's values on race are less developed than Mary's, so it's easy for him too look past the Aboriginal's skin tone. Mary is more conditioned to the Southern views on race, so she harbors resentment towards him up until he dies.

A central lesson in The Little Prince is that creativity and imagination are characteristics that children lose as they mature into adults. Saint-Exupery begins the book with the Pilot describing how his extravagant drawing of a boa constrictor swallowing an elephant was always misinterpreted by adults as a plain, brown hat. When he meets the Little Prince, who asks him to draw a sheep, he shows him the drawing instead and the Little Prince responds with, “No, no, no! I don't want an elephant inside a boa constrictor.” The Little Prince represents a child with a creative mind, which contrasts with most of the adults he meets when he travels through the Universe.

In Walkabout, Marshall also uses children's drawings to represent ideas, but instead focuses on how Mary and Peter have changed in their time in the desert. Near the end of their grueling journey Peter and Mary find drawing clay and promptly begin to make, “crude but evocative drawings: drawings that would have been a psychologist's delight,” all over the walls. Peter mainly drew the animals he had encountered in the Australian outback, like koalas, lizards, and birds, and Mary drew things from her normal life at home, like jewelry, dress designs, and a house. From this we can tell that Peter has adapted more, mentally, to the outback than Mary, who is still subconsciously is a city girl.

James Vance Marshall and Antoine Saint-Exupery both use children to express the complex topics of relationships and growing up in their own ways. With differing methods, they make strong arguments for their ideas, namely that relationships need to be maintained, creativity needs to be preserved, that children are able adapt to difficult to situations, and that relationships can survive extreme stresses. While these books contain many ideas that can be compared, these two topics allow for the strongest comparisons to be made. Talented in their craft, Marshall and Saint-Exupery certainly never lost their childhood creative spark.

What Children Can Teach Us in Literature