The Concepts of the Desert in Five Works by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Abstract

This paper attempts to depict Saint-Exupery's image of the desert as it is seen in reference to five of his major works: Courrier Sud (1929), Vol de Huit (1931), Terre des Hommes (1939), La Petit Prince (1943), and Citadelle (1948). Each time the desert is mentioned the reader gains a further insight into Saint-Exupery's concept of it. His works taken as a whole give a definitive picture of his attitude toward the desert, which is decisively positive, and his attitude toward the interplay between the desert and the men who inhabit it, which is that they are mutually beneficial.