he caught the rose in a lie one day, he
decided that he could not trust her anymore. He grew lonely and
decided to leave. Despite a last-minute reconciliation with the
rose, the prince set out to explore other planets and cure his loneliness.

While journeying, the narrator tells us, the little prince
passes by neighboring asteroids and encounters for the first time
the strange, narrow-minded world of grown-ups. On the first six
planets the little prince visits, he meets a king, a vain man, a
drunkard, a businessman, a lamplighter, and a geographer, all of
whom live alone and are overly consumed by their chosen occupations.
Such strange behavior both amuses and perturbs the little prince.
He does not understand their need to order people around, to be
admired, and to own everything. With the exception of the lamplighter,
whosedogged faithfulness he admires, the little prince does not
think much of the adults he visits, and he does not learn anything
useful. However, he learns from the geographer that flowers do not
last forever, and he begins to miss the rose he has left behind.

At the geographer’s suggestion, the little prince visits
Earth, but he lands in the middle of the desert and cannot find
any humans. Instead, he meets a snake who speaks in riddles and
hints darkly that its lethal poison can send the little prince back
to the heavens if he so wishes. The little prince ignores the offer
and continues his explorations, stopping to talk to a three-petaled
flower and to climb the tallest mountain he can find, where he confuses
the echo of his voice for conversation. Eventually, the little prince
finds a