In Chapter One, the narrator lays out a central tension that will run throughout the book, that of the "grownup" way of seeing the world versus a childlike perception that is imaginative, creative and full of wonder. The grownups, dulled by the (not really) important facts of their lives, no longer see beyond the mundane. The narrator illustrates this through his drawing of an elephant swallowed by a boa constrictor. Grownups universally identify it as a picture of a hat. Thus, from the start, the narrator creates an "us versus them" dynamic, with the reader drawn in on the side of "us": we are privy to the secrets the narrator shares; we are credited with understanding this more creative way of seeing reality.
Later on, the narrator will recognize the Little Prince as a kindred spirit full of childlike wisdom and wonder when he immediately grasps what the picture is. To live most fully, one must have this creative, childlike imagination, a capacity to penetrate through the ordinary to the extraordinary at the heart of seemingly everyday things, a heightened capacity to love.
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